Did you know that more than 90% of American kids play video games? It’s easily the most common pastime for young people, and thanks to technology, there are more ways than ever to log on and start playing. But playing video games presents a whole host of issues, from addiction to online predators. 

Fortunately, there are plenty of ways to help balance the fun of video games with the potential dangers.  Whether your kid is into console gaming (like Xboxes or PlayStations), phone games, or even virtual reality, we’ve got tips for helping encourage healthy video game habits. 

10 Tips for Healthy Video Game Habits

1. Keep the console in a main area

We recommend having the Nintendo or Xbox live in a common area like the playroom or the living room. This way, you can keep a general eye on what your child is doing and how they’re behaving. Plus, it’s easier to prevent all-night gaming sessions if it’s not in their bedroom. 

2. Research the games your child is playing

Video games have come a long way from just Mario and violent games (though both of those still exist and are still very popular). Today, there are all types of immersive games that can provide social, educational, and creative expression. Find out which games your kid is passionate about and learn what they’re about. Better yet, sit down with them and watch them engage in a bit of gameplay to get a better feel. Pro tip: Learn some of the most popular video game slang so you can understand (and shock) your kid. 

3. Know who they’re playing with

Kids can play together in the living room, but they can also play online with friends (and even strangers!). Talk to your child about the other players, and whether they know them in real life. For many games, like Call of Duty or Fortnite, they may be paired up with strangers randomly from across the world. If you listen to what your kid hears on their headphones, you can experience it yourself, too! Because these games throw together players from all over, it’s possible your kid may hear crude jokes, offensive language, profanity, hate speech, racist slurs, and more. 

4. Have the stranger danger chat discussion

On this heels of #3, it’s important to talk to your kid about the types of strangers they may encounter on multiplayer online games. Some may be normal, some may be mean or angry, and some, unfortunately, could be online predators. Talk to your kid about how people online may not always be who they seem — and some may actively be trying to manipulate kids in sending photos or moving chats to a different platform. 

5. Set daily time limits and watch for addiction

Apart from holidays and the occasional free-for-all session, it’s important to set boundaries around your child’s video game time. Some experts suggest 30 minutes per day during the school week and an hour per day on weekends, but every family is different. For some, this may be too much, and for others, maybe not enough. If your kid is finishing their homework and chores and keeping good grades, you can perhaps be more lenient. But for other kids, daily gaming may be too much of a distraction. No matter what, keep an eye on how preoccupied they get with gaming.

6. Keep a water bottle next to them

This is a simple one, but staying hydrated is always important, even when your child is inside and not running around. There can be a culture of wanting to drink caffeinated beverages to stay alert and pumped while playing video games, but this isn’t always healthy. Encourage your child to drink water when they’re playing. 

7. Learn about the other parts of video game culture

In addition to playing the games themselves, video game fans also like to talk about them and watch other people play them. Discord is a popular messaging platform where players can discuss strategy and even log in to voice chat on games that don’t have in-game chat. Check out our Discord blog post for all of the potential dangers this app poses. Twitch, on the other hand, is a website where live-streamers broadcast themselves playing popular games while chatting with fans. We’ve also got a run-down of it, too. 

8. Prioritize literally everything else first

Video games are fun, and kids enjoy them. Kids would also enjoy eating ice cream for dinner every night and never brushing their teeth. When it comes to planning out days, make sure everything else comes first — school work, chores, dinner at the kitchen table, walks outside, and anything family-related. Video games are a bonus, not a given.

9. Embrace the positive parts

While it can be easy to rail on all the negative parts of video games (and there are plenty), you can also think about their good qualities. Kids can improve their hand-eye coordination, interact with friends(this was huge during COVID), and learn problem-solving skills. 

10. Get your child to be aware of their body while playing

Have you ever tried to talk to your kid while they’re deep in the middle of a battle? It can be like talking to a wall. Now, imagine how your kid’s body feels when it’s been hunched over and stressed out for an hour straight. Encourage your child to get up and move every once a while, stretch before and after, and take breaks. And if your kid is into VR headsets, make sure they know where their play boundaries are so they don’t go running into walls or objects. 

Manage Game Time with Bark

We know — managing screen time and encouraing healthy video game habits is often easier said than done. But Bark can help! If your kid is playing games on their phone, you can set screen time limits like “no Among Us during the school day.” You can also pause the internet whenever you want to their device. Plus, Bark comes with a free, 7-day trial and works on both iOS and Android.

If it’s gaming consoles you’re worried about, the Bark Home is a game-changer. You can turn off the internet to them on a schedule, so your kid won’t be engaged in multiplayer games after bedtime. Bark Home also works on all the internet-connected devices in your home, including TVs, laptops, and computers. 

Stranger danger used to mean talking to your child about creepy people in vans or what to do if you get separated at the mall. Today, stranger danger can happen anywhere, at any time, thanks to the internet. As a parent, this is an incredibly frightening thought and a big contributor to why so many parents are choosing to wait to give their children phones. 

In this post, we’ll discuss the signs that could signal your child is being groomed by a predator, as well as what you can do to help prevent it from happening. 

What Is Grooming?

Grooming is the intentional way a predator targets and manipulates a child into sexual abuse. It can happen in person or in real life, but in this blog post, we’ll be focusing on online grooming

One of the things that we’ve found to be true over the years here at Bark is: if there’s a way to chat online, predators will find their way in. It’s unfortunate, but it happens in apps you’d never expect: fitness apps, religious apps, apps for the youngest of kids. 

And while you may think that your child is smart enough to spot a predator from a mile away, the truth is that they’re incredibly manipulative and convincing. Some pretend to be other kids, while others provide a listening ear as an adult. 

5 Signs a Predator Could Be Grooming Your Kid

A new obsession with being online and available

You know your kid best — you know who they talk to the most, what games they play, and how much screen time they spend on their devices. If you start to notice a sudden and drastic shift in their habits, it may be a sign that they’re talking to someone who’s controlling them.

Presents and tech devices start showing up

One of the ways that online predators manipulate kids involves buying their attention. This could be with expensive video gaming consoles, gift cards, or other age-appropriate presents. The most disturbing gift is a new phone, which enables them to communicate without worrying about screen time limits or the original phone getting taken away.

Being very secretive about who they’re talking to

Apart from texting a crush and being embarrassed about it, there’s no real reason for a child to hide who they’re chatting with — unless it’s completely inappropriate. Some predators will manipulate kids by threatening to hurt them or their families if the secret gets out. What does being secretive look like? Take note if your child:

• Is constantly minimizing browser windows when you walk by
• Puts new phone passcodes in place
• Always sits so you can’t see their phone clearly
• Overreacts to you touching their phone

Exhibiting or discussing sexual behavior that’s mature

There’s an age-appropriate level of sexual knowledge and interest for every age, and we recommend familiarizing yourself with the primary ones. If a young child all of a sudden starts discussing sexual acts they’d have no way of knowing about except via an adult, this could be a sign that someone is telling them about it.

Withdrawing from friends and family

Predators can target kids who are lonely or feel misunderstood by their families. By claiming to “understand” them, they can create a connection that feels real to a child who is struggling with fitting in. As the kid gets more and more manipulated, they’ll become engrossed in the relationship and pull away from their usual activities.

How to Help Prevent Grooming

So, how do you spot the signs of grooming? Kids of any gender, family situation, and socioeconomic status can be targeted as victims of grooming – and no one is immune.

Evidence of grooming can be hard to spot because sexual predators are pros at coercing their victims into keeping quiet. To help protect your child from grooming, we recommend:

• Encouraging your child to share their experiences online by talking openly and often about which websites they’re visiting, games they’re playing, and people they’re chatting with.
• Creating an open family environment where your child feels safe talking about difficult topics. The safer a child feels, the more likely they are to open up when something bad happens.
• Monitoring their devices for potentially harmful communications. Bark can detect messages that may be inappropriate or indicative of sexual abuse. Our screen time and web filtering features can also help parents and guardians manage how much time they spend online. 

Above all, make sure your child knows they are not at fault for anything inappropriate an adult says or does to them. You’re there to help and protect them — not punish them for a predator’s actions. 

It’s another September, which means it’s time for another iOS update for all the Apple families out there! This year, iOS 17 is dropping, and while not as groundbreaking as last year’s — editing and unsending texts! — there’s still plenty for parents to worry about. As usual, there’s also fun features that kids and parents alike will enjoy. 

iOS 17 Features to Worry About

Instant in-message location sharing

Instead of figuring out how to drop a pin (which somehow always takes a minute!), users can instantly share their location in the middle of texting. This is a cool feature if your child is meeting up with their best friend, but it could be concerning if they’re messaging someone you don’t know.

FaceTime video voicemails

Remember Marco Polo? Apple has created their own version of video messages with FaceTime video voicemails. If the person you’re contacting isn’t able to pick up, you have the option to leave them a message they can watch later — and also save into their camera roll to watch again. If you’re worried about this feature, the good news is that Bark can monitor saved photos and videos and alert you to inappropriate content. 

Number swapping with AirDrop

Your child will now be able to hold their iPhone near someone else’s iPhone or Apple Watch to use NameDrop. The ease with which they can get a stranger’s contact information is scary! Pro tip: Consider the Bark Phone, which allows you to approve every single contact your kid wants to add. 

Enhanced private browsing

Private Browsing now locks your private browsing windows when you’re not using them, completely blocks known trackers from loading on pages, and removes tracking added to URLs as you browse. Kids will be able to open private browser windows and lock them with their face or a passcode — a recipe for potential dangers!

Coming Later This Year

Journals

Using machine learning, “iPhones will create personalized suggestions of moments for you to remember and write about based on your photos, music, workouts, and more.” We already know that kids use Google Docs and the Notes app for keeping journals —this will be one more way to lock content on an iPhone.

Easy Airdrop image sending

You can put your iPhone close to someone else’s to initiate an AirDrop image transfer — and continue the transfer even if you step out of range.

iOS 17 Features Just for Fun

Standby

Have you ever wanted to turn your iPhone into a clock? Now you can with Standby mode. Simply turn your iPhone on its side while charging and set it so you can see a clock, a calendar, or the weather at a glance. 

Personalized contact screens for outgoing calls

You’ve always been able to add a contact photo for what you see when someone calls. Now, you customize what they see — a photo, a meme, a bitmoji, or something else entirely!

React with hands

Want to spread some cheer? You can now add a reaction that fills the camera frame with 3-D augmented reality effects like hearts, fireworks, confetti and more. 

Live stickers

Create your own stickers with animated versions of your live photos, which can be fun additions of your pet, your car, or anything else you’ve snapped a pic of. 

Swipe to reply

Instead of holding down on a message and choosing “Reply,” now you can just swipe to answer a text in the thread.

How Bark Can Help

Whether your child will have iOS 17 or will remain a few updates behind, Bark can help you with content monitoring, screen time management, website blocking, and location tracking! Start your free, one-week trial today to see how it can benefit your family. 

September is Suicide Prevention Awareness Month, and for four weeks, organizations, companies, and families around the world remember those affected by suicide, raise awareness, and promote ways to get help for those who are struggling.

It may be hard to believe, but suicide affects more than just adults — it’s been a growing issue for young people for years, which is why it’s important that parents learn about risk factors and how to get help.

This Month, #BeThe1To

The message of the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline this Suicide Prevention Awareness Month (and beyond) is #BeThe1To. It urges family and friends close to someone suicidal to be the one to:

• Ask
• Be there
• Keep them safe
• Help them stay connected
• Follow up

5 Things Parents Need to Know During Suicide Prevention Awareness Month

1. Suicide is the second-leading cause of death for kids ages 10–14. 

This is one suicide statistic that is nearly impossible to believe but is so important to know. Related, pediatric suicide rates have increased significantly in America almost tripling between 2007 and 2017 among children ages 10 to 14. This rise has made suicide responsible for more child deaths than any single major medical illness. 

2. Knowing the risk factors and warning signs can help you recognize suicidal ideation

Risk factors for kids that increase the chances of suicidal thoughts include:

• Previous suicide attempts
• Depression
• Traumatic experiences
• Bullying
• Substance abuse
• Isolation

Some typical warning signs are:

• Talking about suicide or dying
• Drastic mood changes
• Giving away personal possessions
• Withdrawing from family and friends
• Increased substance use

You know your child best — if these symptoms don’t seem quite on point, but you still suspect something may be wrong, talk to them. Here are a few ways to talk to your child about suicide in a way that’s age-appropriate. 

3.  But being suicidal doesn’t always look like you’d expect

When a suicide happens and family are friends are blindsided — think honor roll students, star athletes, or even celebrities like Twitch from The Ellen Show — many people claim they didn’t see it coming. In reality, the warning signs may have just been harder to spot, especially when kids are feeling pressured to be perfect or perform at high levels. Be sure to check in on people no matter how accomplished or well-adjusted they may seem.

4. Talking about suicide won’t encourage suicide attempts

When it comes to talking to your child about suicide, it can be so, so scary. It’s every parent’s nightmare. But while it’s a hard conversation to have, you may not have to worry about it encouraging them to take action. 

According to the CDC, research shows people who are having thoughts of suicide actually feel relief when someone talks to them about it in a caring way. Data suggests that acknowledging and discussing suicide may reduce rather than increase suicidal thoughts. 

If you’re worried about your child feeling suicidal, the most important thing you can do them is talk openly about it. You have to learn what they’re going through before you can help them. 

5. There are multiple resources and hotlines available for support

Whether it’s your child, a friend, a co-worker, or even an acquaintance, it’s important to know that there are available resources for suicide prevention, how to talk about it, and where to turn for help when it’s needed:

• Crisis Text Line
• American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP)
• National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
• The Trevor Project
• Suicide Prevention Resource Center (SPRC)

How Bark Can Help

Bark’s award-winning service helps families by monitoring children’s online activities for potential signs of depression, suicidal ideation, self-harm, and more. When you connect their device and accounts, Bark will scan for potential issues and send you an alert if something concerning is found. 

Examples of suicidal ideation in online activity include:

• Google searches of “ways to kill yourself”
• Texts between friends about feeling hopeless
• Docs that act like journals where kids express suicidal thoughts

If you get an alert, you can check in with your child and make sure everything’s okay — and get your child help, if needed. And if you’re worried about your child’s immediate safety, dial 911. 

Start your free, 7-day trial of Bark today.

As we approach September, back-to-school season is in full swing all across the country. Whether it’s going swimmingly or your family is encountering some hiccups, there’s one that’s true — back to school is always a bit of an adjustment. 

But like everything in life, there are good parts and bad parts, and for kids this is doubly true — especially in the age of social media and smartphones. In this blog post, we’ll go over the highs and lows that families can expect from this back-to-school season.

The Highs of Back to School

Getting a fresh start

Whether it’s a brand new school or just a new teacher, another school year brings with it the chance to wipe the slate clean. If your kid struggled last year — or even if they absolutely crushed it! — having an opportunity to press the restart button can help them approach the new school year with an open mind and an optimistic attitude. 

Making new friends

Kids won’t realize it until they’re older and graduated, but school is one of the best times in your life to make friends. You’re with the same group of people for big chunks of time and you see them a lot, sharing experiences and memories. Even if your child doesn’t become best friends with everyone, they'll have a community of peers to laugh and relate to. And sometimes, kids DO meet their best friends in a class, and it’s magic. 

Getting back into routines

Summer can be full of long road trips, late night Netflix marathons, and rowdy sleepover parties. With the return of the school year comes a more structured approach to life — early wakeups, commutes, the school day, homework time, dinner, and rest. It may not seem like it when you hear your kid lament the loss of summer, but kids actually crave routine. It gives them security and a sense of normalcy to know what they’re doing and when each day.

Joining clubs

There’s more to school than just academics, which is why joining clubs and participating in extracurriculars is such an important part of the school year. It doesn’t matter what your child’s interests are — from football to gaming and robotics, there are after-school activities for every kid. These clubs teach responsibility, augment your child’s socialization skills, and provide another way to help them become well-rounded young adults. 

The Lows of Back to School

Worrying about school violence

For kids and parents alike, the return to the classroom revives fears of senseless acts of violence. These fears can cause anxiety and depression in young people, especially when schools hold drills to practice in case of emergency. Here’s how to talk to your child about their fears – now’s a stressful time to be a kid. 

Dreading Bullying

Cyberbullying isn’t like the bullying we grew up with — it can happen anywhere, any time of day. Last year we found that 71.2% of tweens and 83.3% of teens experienced bullying as a bully, victim, or witness, which means that’s more than just common. It’s rampant. 

Fearing the unknown

We mentioned the positive aspect of wiping the slate clean for a new school year. For some kids, this prospect is frightening! It’s especially scary if you’re starting a new school, like transitioning from elementary to middle school. Not knowing the teachers, the school layout, and being brand new to a student body can be super overwhelming! The good news is that many of these fears will disappear as soon as your child finishes their first week and is more comfortable with their new surroundings. 

Waking up early

Even though we know that kids do better with routines, that doesn’t stop the ongoing morning wake-up battle in many houses. Fortunately, there are some strategies to get the most of the early hours! Here are some tips to get your family on track in the morning. And an even better way is to be proactive — getting a good night’s sleep is half the battle.

Feeling more anxious 

Sometimes it can be overwhelming for kids to keep up with it all — grades, assignments, peer pressure, and so much more. While making good grades can be rewarding, be sure to have realistic expectations on your child's workload and also work to help them balance it by checking in with reminders on studying and project timeframes. Scheduling doesn't always come naturally to all students, so helping to set them up for success definitely helps. Also, slumps happen! So be sure to be their safe landing place to ask questions and offer solutions when they’re feeling overwhelmed.

How Bark Can Help

When parents gear up for back-to-school, Bark is a great tool to add to the toolbelt! Parents can use Bark to create those new screen time schedules and manage when kids can use certain apps throughout the day, helping to keep kids focused on learning. 

Our content monitoring can help you keep an eye on what’s going on in your child’s digital world. Bark scans texts, emails, and social media for potential dangers like bullying, online predators, suicidal ideation, and more. You’ll get an alert if something concerning is found. 

Bark also comes with app & website blocking and location tracking for greater peace of mind. Start your free, one-week trial today of our app.

And if you’re interested in a phone that does it all plus a ton of additional incredible features, the Bark Phone will change how you think about kids’ phones — and parents can’t stop talking about it. 

As a parent, you’re probably familiar with the concept of screen time — generally, that kids get too much of it. You’ve also probably heard of (or used!) Apple Screen Time or Google Family Link, which are free tools that can help you manage your kid’s device use. But these apps aren’t perfect, and kids are ingenious when it comes to finding workarounds. 

Here at Bark, we pride ourselves on our powerful screen time management tool that comes included when you download our app or buy a Bark Phone. In this post, we’ve laid out 5 ways Bark parents actually make measurable differences in their child’s screen time — for the better! 

5 Ways Parents Use Bark’s Screen Time to Set Healthy Boundaries

1. Keeping the school day sacred

Regardless of whether your kid’s allowed to have their phone at school, the chances that they’re being distracted by it are pretty high. It’s even common for teachers to wish parents were proactive and blocked access to games and social media during the school day. The good news is that Bark lets you do just this.

You can create a custom school day screen time schedule that begins the minute they walk into the building to the second they step on the school bus. An example schedule would look like a complete block on all non-educational sites during the school day. This way, your child can log into Gmail or PBS.org, but won’t be able to visit YouTube, Fortnite, or Instagram. When they know they don’t have access until say, 3 p.m., they can focus on what really matters — learning. 

2. Encouraging rest at lights out

We recommend that all kid’s devices be charged in the kitchen overnight, but if that’s not an option for your family, there’s a way to help keep your child from watching videos or scrolling on TikTok all night. Rest for growing kids is super important! 

When you create a bedtime schedule, you can block nearly everything but keep apps that you know won’t cause them to stay up all night. For example, you could keep podcasts or meditation apps so they can wind down comfortably without the addictive nature of social media or games. 

3. Making time for play

In between resting and learning, it’s important for kids to be able to kick back and relax with their devices occasionally. Our free time setting lets you carve out dedicated time for the things your child enjoys most when they’re online. You decide exactly how long the break is, as well as what apps and websites they can visit. It’s not completely hands-off — if you’ve noticed that your kid is generally good with games but gets a little too into Minecraft, you can create exceptions in the allowed or blocked category.

4. Creating different daily schedules that repeat — or not

You can choose the screen time schedule that works best for your kid because only you know the daily ins and outs of their activities. You could set it up so Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday have one set of rules, and leave Saturday and Sunday more open. Or, if your child has drastically different Tuesdays and Thursdays because of practice, you could set those up differently. You could even have different schedules every single day!

5. Pausing the internet anytime

Sometimes, you just need to pull the internet plug for a few minutes and give your kid a hard reset. Think of this feature as a Wi-Fi timeout. The best part is you can do this right from your Bark parent app — and you don’t even need to be in the same house as your kid! When things have cooled off a bit, you can toggle it back on and resume your normal screen time schedule.

Learn More About Bark

Bark’s screen time scheduling is an important part of our product, but there’s so much more that comes with it. You can also track location and block websites and apps, but it’s Bark’s content monitoring that makes it an absolute game-changer when it comes to online safety.

Bark scans your kid’s social media accounts, texts, emails, and files for potential issues. If something concerning is found — like sexting, online predators, bullying, and depression — you’ll get an alert so you can check in and make sure everything’s okay. Start your free, 7-day trial today, or learn more about the Bark Phone, which is our phone designed specifically with parents in mind that comes with Bark built in, along with a host of cool features like contact approvals, daily time limits, and much more. 

Ever wish you had the real scoop on what teachers think about back to school? So did we! That’s why we reached out to the teachers, counselors, and administrators in our lives to ask them one simple question: 

“What’s one thing you’d want parents to know about back to school?”

They were free to interpret it as they wished. How each teacher responded reflects the community they serve and what’s most pressing on their mind.

TL:DR

• Talk to your kids daily, and ask open-ended questions.
• Get involved in school activities if you have the time and resources!
• Remember that back to school is stressful for kids, parents, and teachers alike.
• Be patient in the carpool line! (Good advice for us adults in regular traffic, too.)

10 Teachers, 10 Different Responses

1. “I want parents to know that most of our drama right now is coming from social media and group chats. If your kid has a phone, you need to be talking with them about digital safety and you as the parent need to be aware of how much trouble they can get in when they put everything in writing. We have so many kids go from no behavior records to a behavior tribunal because they type a threat or they’re bullying virtually. I also want parents to know that we need them here! We want them to volunteer as field trip chaperones, classroom helpers, lunch monitors, PTO members, helpers at sporting events, anything. Parent volunteers are SO important!”

2. “I always wish parents would be more communicative in all the ways…talking with their kiddos about all the goings on of their school and social lives other than “How’s school?”— as well as communicating with teachers and realizing how much that helps them feel seen, heard, and loved through all the anxieties of school. Be open and listen to their concerns about school! Help them build up the confidence to find solutions to their concerns. 

3. “I think that parents have much more influence over their kids than they might think. Teachers, peers, celebrities can be role models, but their parents are usually #1 — even if they won’t admit it.”

4. “One thing I have learned, especially as a homeschooling mom & teacher, is that every kid learns differently (even within the same family) — some are visual learners, some are auditory learners, some are self-led, and some just need that one-on-one instruction to best absorb the information. If you dig a little deeper to find out how your kid learns best, you’ll be way ahead of the game when it comes to helping them with homework, projects, or even explaining those life-lessons along the way.”

5. “Something that’s important to me is that parents stick to the specialized classroom supply list. It’s so helpful when they buy things from my wishlist. I know this sounds crazy, but the school doesn’t provide any supplies, so having parents get everything you need (including wipes and cleaning products) is essential. It’s also really important to check in with the teachers in January or February to see if they need any other supplies because so many things run out.”

6. “The first week of school is about getting back into a routine of waking up early and the schedule of classes. It’s about undoing all of those summer habits. The staff and kids are usually exhausted. It’s hard adjusting to being in class all day. Some kids can get really emotional.”

7. “I want parents to understand the love and energy that we as teachers are putting into their children. We have our own families and worries but their children are usually front and center in my mind. We spend our own money — not the board of education’s money — to help wherever we can. My main concern is helping these children grow and develop into happy, healthy adults. Some parents need to remember that when they start to weigh down on teachers.”

8. “Treat the first month as a time of adjustment. New teachers, new friends, new schedules…it can be a lot! Let your kids know you’re all learning together and enlist their advice in finding the best way forward. It’s not just the kids starting a new school year - it’s the whole family! Stick together and go easy on yourselves while you get into the groove.”

9. “Every year is different, and with a new beginning it is helpful for everyone to have an open mind to a new classroom environment for your student. Reach out to your new teacher if you have questions, and don’t be afraid to advocate for them. And of course, be patient in the carpool line — everyone is just trying their best to get everyone home safely each day.”

10. “I would love them to know that grades are just one metric of success and the life long skills your children receive from school is learning how to grow, and learn, and be a good friend, and to cope, and have ups and downs. Parental anxiety sometimes gets displaced on our kids. The more we can stay calm, the more calm they will be. If anxiety about going back to school appears, their emotions get big. In these moments, don't get bigger with them, stay small and encourage big deep breaths.”

Some Common Themes

You’ll notice that there are some common themes from the answers teachers provided, despite being from all across the country and in different types of schools. Teachers want to hear from you, and they want you to be involved in your child’s education. That can look like showing up occasionally to school or just asking more detailed questions about what your child does every day.

Teachers also need help! Their job is incredibly taxing and also so, so important. Whether it’s wishlist items or just a little extra grace in stressful situations (or just parent pickup).

How to Help Prepare Your Child For Back to School

Along with helping your child get back into a schedule with regular bedtimes, we recommend using a combination of relationship-building tactics and tech tools to ensure your family can fully adjust to the new normal. 

We highly recommend making a tech contract to help set expectations for the school year and place it on the fridge (or another high-traffic area) so everyone can be reminded of its contents. All night video game sessions — here’s how to put a stop to those, by the way— and unlimited YouTube marathons may have been the norm in July, but now it’s a whole different ball game.

Kids need sleep in order to 1). Grow 2) Stay healthy mentally and physically and 3) Focus! Don’t be afraid to set limits and boundaries, and use tech to support you in those efforts by limiting time spent on certain apps or blocking apps and sites altogether.

Another issue that is top of mind for parents is smartphones in schools. If it’s time for your child to have a smartphone, there’s no better phone for kids than the Bark Phone, and that’s because it lets you manage what your child can do on it during the school day. With our screen time settings, you can block everything but educational websites to help keep them on track. 

Finally, it’s really not a matter of if but when your child is going to encounter problematic content or people (a.k.a. bullies). Bark’s monitoring feature can help you know what’s really going on in your child’s world because even if you have a super solid relationship with your child, they just might not have the energy or desire to fill you in when things aren’t 100%.

 Our advanced technology scans texts, emails, and social media for potential dangers like bullying, threats of violence, online predators, and more. You’ll get an alert if there’s an issue so you can check in and make sure everything is okay. We can’t clear all the obstacles in their path, nor should we. But with Bark, we can get an alert about a potential obstacle and help our kids build coping skills to successfully navigate the rocky path that is growing up in a tech world. Good luck out there and let us know if you have any questions.

In 2015, Brian Bason left his job at Twitter to start a company in order to solve a problem — a very personal problem. His two kids would be getting cell phones soon, and he realized he had no idea how to help protect them with this technology. 

And so began Bark! Fast forward eight years and our company now has over 100 employees, we’ve released our own phone, and we help protect more than 6 million kids across the world. In honor of our eighth Barkiversary, we wanted to showcase just how different the world is from when Bark was founded nearly a decade ago — it’s a little mind-blowing!

Travel back with us to 2015, when Star Wars: The Force Awakens ruled the box office, zombie-filled TV show The Walking Dead was the hottest show, and Drake’s “Hotline Bling” was one of the most popular songs AND memes. 

The Tech World in 2015

• TikTok’s predecessor, Musical.ly, was 1 year old, and consisted primarily of dancing/lip sync videos. It wouldn’t become TikTok until 2018. 
• Instagram was 5 years old, but only 24% of adults used it. Meanwhile, 73% of teens said they used Instagram, making it the most important social media platform for young people. 
• Snapchat was 4 years old and had roughly 75 million users, the majority of whom were younger people. This was also the year Snap launched the Discover page as well as Lenses, the popular interactive AI filters that are now found on nearly every social media platform.
• Two popular platforms — Vine and Tumblr — were major contenders for time spent online for young people. 
• 66% of people in the U.S. owned a smartphone.
• Twitter was just a regular social media platform where people shared news with hashtags.

The Tech World in 2023

• 96% of 18 to 29-year-olds in the U.S. own a smartphone, with many kids also receiving their first devices years before. 
• TikTok is by far the most downloaded social media platform, but is also causing controversy with talks of being banned in America due to Chinese ties. 
• Snapchat now has more than half a billion users.
• Twitter, having been bought by Elon Musk, experiences turmoil and upset in features and policies. 
• On top of social media platforms and smartphones, the Internet of Things has taken off. These are smart-home devices like Google Homes, Amazon Nests, Ring Doorbells, and more.
• Smartphones from Apple and Google now have their own proprietary parental control software, Screen Time and Family Link.

The Evolution of Bark in 8 Years

When Bark first launched — with a small and mighty team — we only offered content monitoring. Within a few years, we expanded to other parental controls like web blocking, screen time management, and location tracking. 

We expanded to home coverage with the creation of the Bark Home, which lets families manage all of the internet-connected devices in the home. Then, in 2022, we launched our most ambitious project yet: the Bark Phone, which combined all of Bark’s features and a whole host of brand new ones all in a Samsung A-series device. 

That’s the short version, of course. Over the years, we’ve also collaborated with schools all over America, been featured on national TV shows and documentaries, and contributed thought leadership in support of legislation for online safety for kids.

We’ve also remained dedicated to helping provide resources for parents. Our Facebook group, Parenting in a Tech World, has grown from just a few hundred parents looking for advice to more than 350,000 asking questions and providing their own experiences to help fellow families. 

Looking to the Future

We’re incredibly honored to have been able to help so many families over the past eight years. Our company is incredibly mission driven, and each week we still get letters from parents telling us how Bark has helped change their family’s life. Each time, we still get emotional reading these stories. 

As Bark continues to grow, we’ll be here to help every parent in the digital age help protect their kids online and in real life. 

There’s a brand new Twitter rival in town, and it’s the Meta-backed app Threads. It answers the question, “What if you could have a new Twitter, but with all your Instagram friends?”

Over the past year, Twitter has been in turmoil with rapidly changing rules and regulations from new owner Elon Musk, causing many users to jump ship to other platforms. 

Instagram currently boasts more than 2 billion users, so this was almost an inevitable move by Meta. After all, one of the problems every new social network has is the slow rebuild of connections. People want to be where their friends are!

And this is exactly what other recent Twitter rivals like Mastodon and Blue Sky have been facing. These apps have been struggling to gain traction, but because of the ease of joining Threads with an existing Instagram account, Threads already has millions of users just a few hours after launch. The list of users includes celebrities — including Gen Z heavy weights like Jack Harlow and Karlie Kloss — with huge followings that will most likely lure Instagram users over. 

TL:DR

• Instagram launched its own version of Twitter.
• It has similar functions but the look and feel of Instagram.
• Users can add their Instagram friends easily once they join Threads.
• Threads is no safer than other chatting platforms, and dangers include predators, bullying, and inappropriate content.
• We recommend waiting before allowing your child to download — the app is still brand new and it’s unclear how dangerous it will become. 
• We’ll keep you updated on when and if Bark can monitor Threads. 

How Threads Work

To sign up for threads, you’ll need to download the Threads app. Creating an account is seamless if you already have an Instagram account — you’re required to keep your username, but all you have to do is just log in and your profile photo and friends list will be there. You have the option of following all of these connections, as it’s not automatic. 

On Threads you can have a different bio from your Instagram account, if you want. This may be seen as a nod that many folks have slightly different styles on social media platforms. Threads (aping Twitter) is a different experience than the more visual-based Instagram, and users may act a little differently. If you don’t have an Instagram, you can still join Threads, you'll just need to create an Instagram account first. 

Like Twitter, you also have a character limit, but with Threads, it’s 500 characters. You can reply, retweet (or “rethread”), and mention other users. Images and videos up to 5 minutes are also fair game in the feed. As of right now, there aren’t hashtags or direct messages, though it’s possible that may change in the future. 

Unlike Twitter, the app’s interface feels distinctly Instagram, with the well-known heart, comment, and share feature prominently placed. This may impact the adoption of Threads with younger people who didn’t use Twitter, but know and love Instagram. That’s Meta’s whole point, of course, to make this transition as organic and simple as possible for Instagram users.  

Potential Dangers

What you see on Threads is based on an algorithm — you’ll see a mix of content from people you follow as well from strangers that the app thinks you may be interested in. As with other algorithm-based apps like TikTok, Facebook, and even Instagram itself, this means some wild stuff has the potential to pop up in your feed. 

Twitter has long been known to have a porn problem, but it’s still too early to know if Threads will have the same issue. There is a search function, though the lack of hashtags makes it less than robust. Right now, searching seems to be limited to user names, which hamstrung our attempts to easily find explicit content — good news for now, but it will most likely change.

The other usual dangers common to chatting social media still apply to Threads: interacting with strangers could lead to grooming. Even though there’s no DM function yet, it’s a quick username or phone number exchange to jump to communicating on a different platform like Snapchat.

Bullying could also rear its ugly head due to Thread’s similarity to Twitter: the latter platform is known for its mean-spirited clapbacks and even more aggressive forms of harassment like doxxing, the sharing of personal information online. Mark Zuckerberg stated that Threads will have enforced community guidelines, but that same line has been spouted before with Instagram, and there’s tons of inappropriate content there, as well. 

In-App Safeguards

Threads isn’t off limits to kids, but that doesn’t mean it’s appropriate for them — much like all social media.

Threads does have some parental controls, though they’re not passcode locked, which means your child could turn them off at any time. Users under 16 will be automatically funneled into a private profile, but this too can be disabled. 

 Here’s what you can control:

• Private profiles: Toggling this on means only approved followers will be able to see and interact with your child’s content.
• Mentions: You can choose whether people can “@” or mention your child in threads, replies, or bios.
• Muted: When you mute someone, you won’t see any of their content, but they can still see yours. 
• Hidden words: You can manage whether comments show up on your child’s feed if they contain offensive words (or custom words you choose).
• Blocked profiles: You can completely block someone from showing up in your child’s Threads experience, and they won’t see your child’s content.
• Hide likes: This prevents your child’s content from displaying view counts and likes. 

So, Is It Safe for Kids?

We’d recommend not allowing Threads for the time being until more of its functionality can be cemented. Poking around the app this morning, you see that users are still sort of figuring out the vibe of it all. It’s also unclear whether this app will 100% take off and remain a viable social media platform. Know that kids may likely be intrigued by Threads, especially since once their friends join, they’ll get a notification on Instagram, prompting that FOMO. 

Bottom line: If you didn’t want your child using Twitter, you probably won’t want them using Threads – yet. We’ll keep you updated with new information and when Bark can monitor the app. 

Being a teenager is never easy, and that’s something nearly every generation experiences. You’re caught in between two worlds, and you desperately want to be grown and taken seriously. Unfortunately, even though we were all once teens, it’s amazing how quickly you can forget how strong these feelings can be. 

To help remind you what this time was like, we’ve assembled five important feelings that teens wish their parents better understood. We hope it helps you see things from their perspective a little clearer. 

5 Things Teens Wish Their Parents Knew

1. “It may not seem like it, but I do listen to you.”

It is a truth universally acknowledged that teens never, ever, want to admit that their parents are right about something. This is because as a teen, you feel like you’re the first person in the history of the world experiencing everything for the very first time.

But even the most stubborn of kids is also always listening to what their parents are saying — and in more ways than you might think. They listen to how you talk about having a bad day at work, how you talk about missing your own parents, how you wish you had more hours in the day to relax. 

Kids learn and absorb so much from their family, even if they’re unaware of it or unwilling to admit it. They’ll take in your political beliefs, sense of humor, and taste in movies. As a parent, you’re setting an example not only by what you say, but what you do, and how you live, day in, and day out. 

And those times you warned them about something and it came true? They did listen to it (even if they didn’t follow it). And when they're older, they’ll remember it as love. 

2. “The pandemic really did a number on my generation.”

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the entire world, and millions of lives were lost over the course of a few years. It was a tragedy the likes of which the world had never seen.

For those lucky enough to escape unscathed, it meant 2+ years of isolation and separation. Many adults worked from home and (sometimes) enjoyed the break from social obligations. For others, balancing childrearing and working from home was a disaster. 

But kids also had their entire young worlds upended. Zoom school was difficult, frustrating, and not entirely successful. Some kids still claim that they learned almost nothing during those years. The complete disruption of daily schedules and the best parts of being a kid — school dances, sports, sleepovers, trips, and clubs — were dashed. Parents could go back into the office once things were over, but kids couldn’t go back to 7th grade for a do-over.

Now that the world is mostly back to normal, there are often two approaches kids are taking. Some are going all-out trying to make up for lost time. Others have retreated into themselves, accustomed to the online comforts of Discord, gaming, and the safety of indoors. It remains to be seen how these years of isolation will affect the long-term mental health of this generation — especially in the critical years of youth when socialization and milestones are so important. 

3. “I understand more than you think.”

With the instant access to all of human knowledge that the internet provides, kids know a lot more than we did when we were their age. This goes for all sorts of subjects — money, relationships, politics, culture, even sex. Growing up in the digital age means you grow up a lot faster, for better or worse. 

This means you can talk to your child directly a lot of the time without pulling too many punches. When you do this, they’ll appreciate the respect you’re showing them and will be more likely to engage in a meaningful way. They may not have a ton of world experience, but they can recognize key events, people, and themes — and may even have their own unique perspective on it all. 

4. “My phone is my lifeline.”

Teens aren’t drawn to their phone for no good reason — devices provide communication, information, connection, entertainment, and so much more. As an adult, you know this is true for yourself, as well. 

This doesn’t mean that kids shouldn’t have guardrails and screen time limits. After all, their brains are still developing and it’s our job as parents to keep them on the right track.

But it’s important to keep in mind that the way we live now is so, so different from growing up in the ‘80s. Not to mention that the pandemic helped really cement digital communication as the go-to source for chatting. Hanging out with friends used to look like roaming Barnes & Noble or hanging out at Denny’s late into the night. This still happens, of course, but it also looks like playing Fortnite online with five of your best friends who live in different states. 

5. “Sometimes — even though I’ll never admit it — I just want to be a kid still.”

The pressure to grow up fast begins at a young age — think how many kids demand that you refer to them as “6 and a half” instead of “just 6.” As they get bigger, they strive to shake free of kid-like habits and clothes, desperately trying to fit in with the cooler, older kids. 

But there’s a tension that can emerge. All of the fun stuff that comes with being older, like driving and dating, can get overwhelmed by other responsibilities like working, taking advanced classes, and more. And older teens are just a few short years away from being legal adults, which means college, full-time jobs, the military, or other new paths in life. 

Kids recognize this, and sometimes just want to be a kid, reveling in kid-stuff like video games, family board game nights, and bike rides. When you recognize these moments in your teen, lean into them. Make that grilled cheese. Pull out the photo albums. They’ll be grown before you know it.

How Bark Can Help

Raising kids in the digital age can be a challenge, but Bark is here to help! Our tools help you set healthy boundaries around screen time, block inappropriate websites, and track location. Our most powerful parenting tool is monitoring. Bark scans your child’s texts, emails, and social media for signs of potential dangers and sends you alerts so you can check in and make sure everything’s okay.

 Parents write in every day to tell us how Bark alerts kickstart important conversations, helping to improve their relationship with their child and protect them online and in real life. Try Bark free for a week to see how it can change your family’s life. 

Summer is here and kids everywhere are rejoicing! Parents, on the other hand, are looking for a way to help keep their kids safe online and in real life. The Bark Phone is the absolute most perfect phone for kids, with features like location tracking, contact approval, and so much more. Check out all of the ways the Bark Phone can give you peace of mind this summer. 

Stress less with location tracking

Trips to the local pool, baseball games, and sleepovers — being a kid in summer is one of the great pleasures in life. But as a parent, you also want to keep track of where your child is when they’re out and about in the warmer months. With the Bark Phone, you can track their location in real-time. 

You can also add in frequently visited locations — like a best friend’s house, a co-parents home, or the local park — and get automatic alerts when your child arrives or leaves. No more constant, back-and-forth “Where are you?” texts!

Win the battle against screen time

With school being out and facing less daily supervision, kids may wish for a no-holds-barred approach to screen time this summer. But even if your family is cool with a relaxed screen time schedule, it’s good to still have some bumpers in place. 

The Bark Phone lets you create customized screen time rules that let you get super granular. For example, mornings could be “only text and calling” and afternoons could be “just YouTube.” And for sleepovers, you could block internet access to prevent any potential unsavory googling. This way, you can help keep some healthy boundaries and encourage more outside time and in-person socialization. Pro tip: With the Bark Home, you can also manage your child’s online video game schedule. Say goodbye to marathon Fortnite sessions with our scheduling tool. 

Get alerts for potential dangers

Kids may have the summer off, but many parents don’t. Similarly, online dangers don’t take a break, which is why the Bark Phone is a must-have for families. Bark scans your child’s device and accounts for signs of potential dangers — issues like online predators, sexting, depression, and more — and sends an alert if something concerning is found. This way, you can check in and make sure everything’s okay in your child’s world. 

Manage contacts for all those new friends

One of the best things about the Bark Phone is that it lets you manage who your child can communicate with online. When your child’s at camp or roaming the neighborhood this summer, you can approve all of the new friends they want to add as contacts. This helps keep your child’s online world a little smaller and, hopefully, safer. 

Stay on top of schedules with remote alarms

Summer can mean the opportunity to sleep in, but sometimes you don’t want your child staying in bed until noon. Whether they have a day camp, medicine to take, plans with friends, or just chores around the house, kids can get a wake-up call from their phone with an alarm you set. 

Learn more about the Bark Phone

The Bark Phone starts at just $39/month and comes with unlimited talk and text. No contract required, cancel anytime. Learn more about our different plans and order yours today. 

Dr. Vivek Murthy, the U.S. surgeon general, has issued an important advisory sounding the alarm about the state of kids, social media, and mental health this week.

As any parent of a tween or teen knows, things aren’t great right now — and haven’t been for a while. Let’s get into what parents need to understand about this report. 

What Is a Surgeon General’s Advisory?

The surgeon general is the nation’s top doctor, and their job is to provide Americans with the best scientific information available on how to improve health and reduce risk of illness and injury. 

Advisories are serious business — they’re meant to call attention to an urgent public health issue and provide recommendations for how it should be addressed. Just how serious is this one? It’s in the same company as legendary advisories against: 

• Smoking cigarettes
• Violence on TV and in video games
• Obesity
• Gun violence
• Drunk driving

 These warnings can often trigger a sea change in habits and behavior, which is a good thing. 

10 Takeaways from the Surgeon General’s Advisory on Social Media

1. Kids are using social media almost constantly.

This will probably come as no surprise to most parents, but the details are a little heartbreaking. The report gives the following stats that show just how embedded social media is into the fabric of young people’s lives:

• Up to 95% of youth ages 13–17 report using a social media platform
• 8th and 10th graders now spend an average of 3.5 hours per day on social media
• More than a third state they use social media “almost constantly.”
• Even though 13 is the minimum age for most platforms, nearly 40% of children ages 8–12 have accounts.

2. While there are some benefits of social media, the dangers far outweigh them.

We all learned this firsthand during the pandemic — online connections through social media, gaming, and messaging platforms can be a lifeline for people to stay in touch, especially for young people and members of minority groups. But as we’ll see, the risks are too high too ignore for the sake of easy communication. 

3. Teen and tween brains are incredibly vulnerable to social media.

Risk-taking behaviors (which can include online activities like sending nudes and bullying) reach their peak when kids are ages 10 to 19. This is also when mental health challenges such as depression typically emerge. 

On top of all this, the teen years are when kids are forming their identities, and when they’re most susceptible to peer pressure and outside influences. When you put all these together, they demonstrate why social media is such a dangerous threat. 

The American Psychological Association recommends that parents monitor their child’s social media use between the ages of 10 and 14 — especially when it comes to potential harmful content that kids are seeing. 

4. Scientific studies clearly show that more social media = more damage

The report cites a study that found kids who spent more than 3 hours a day on social media faced double the risk of experiencing poor mental health outcomes including symptoms of depression and anxiety. Now think about the kids who are spending 6, 9, even 12 hours a day online. The damage could be immeasurable.

5. What kids are seeing (and experiencing) online is actively harming them.

Like with the depression and anxiety that kids are experiencing, social media is also exposing kids to incredibly harmful content like violent and extremist propaganda, videos about disordered eating, and more. 

One extremely chilling form of content that algorithms in particular have been known to show revolves around self-harm and suicide. This is incredibly dangerous as suicide is currently the second-leading cause of death for 10- to 14-year-olds. 

6. Social media platforms purposely design their apps with features that addict kids.

Some researchers think that social media can overstimulate the reward center in a child’s brain and can form neural pathways like those found in addiction. Small studies have even shown that people with problematic social media use have changes in brain structure like people with drug or gambling addictions,

 7. Adolescent girls and transgender youth are disproportionately impacted by online harassment and abuse

Predatory behavior on social media is rampant. Nearly 60% of adolescent girls have stated that they’ve been contacted by strangers on social media platforms in manners that make them feel uncomfortable. 

8. Parents can take tangible steps to help protect their kids. 

All’s not lost yet — parents and guardians can step in to set healthy boundaries. In addition to monitoring, families are encouraged to:

• Create a family tech contract to set rules and expectations.
• Make tech-free zones and times around the house.
• Set a good example with tech use by being responsible.
• Teach kids about tech use and proper behavior.
• Report instances of bullying and online abuse. 

9. Tech companies are being put on notice for how to address these problems but not currently held accountable. 

As we’ve seen, the onus can’t only be on parents – not when tech companies have more leverage and the funds to address problems on the front end. The report calls on them to produce more research into negative effects, provide more controls for parents, and to actually enforce age minimums.

10. We don’t have the luxury of waiting years until we know the full extent of social media’s impact.

We’re the first generation of parents raising kids with this unprecedented technology, and it will take a while to actually determine what the long-term effects are. But we can’t wait to act. Even the limited knowledge we’ve gained so far is showing that they probably won’t be good. 

Bark Can Help You Manage Your Kid’s Social Media and More

Staying actively involved in your child’s online world is a non-negotiable in the wake of this advisory. Fortunately, Bark is here to help parents! Founded by a dad of two, our parental controls put you in the driver’s seat when it comes to your child’s tech use. 

Monitoring

Bark scans texts, emails, and 30+ of the most popular apps and social media platforms for issues like bullying, online predators, suicidal ideation, sexual content, and more.

Bark’s content monitoring features let you:

• Receive alerts if your child encounters porn, cyberbullying, drugs, online predators, and more
• Get key insights into your child’s online world so you can support them as they navigate technology
• Be alerted about inappropriate emojis and slang terms your kid uses
• Much more!

Blocking

Our web filter lets you select exactly what your kid can access on their devices. You can block specific sites and apps or even whole categories like streaming services, online gaming, sexual content, and more.

Screen time

These days, it’s more important than ever for kids to have time to disconnect from their devices and spend some time connecting with friends, picking up a new hobby, or just (gasp) being bored.

Bark helps you set screen time rules that will help you care for your child’s overall well-being. Who knows? They might just end up discovering a new passion thanks to a couple of hours a week set aside for screen-free activities.

Get Started Today

We have an entire suite of products available to help families, and you can learn more about everything over on our products page. You can also start a free, 7-day trial of our Bark Premium app to see how Bark can help your family. 

AI — the term is everywhere these days, and it can be hard to know what exactly it means. But maybe even more importantly, what it means for your child. From groundbreaking new platforms like ChatGPT to the videos TikTok chooses to show your child on their For Your Page, AI influences nearly every aspect of our lives these days. Here’s what parents need to know about how childhood is being impacted by AI. 

What Do We Mean by AI?

AI stands for artificial intelligence, and this term has come to mean many different things when it comes to technology. AI mimics human problem-solving and decision-making — think about chatbots on websites, personal assistants like Alexa, and more. But AI also spills over into video games, social media, and a ton of other avenues that we interact with on a daily basis. 

5 Ways AI Is Affecting How Your Kids Grow Up

Creativity

Kids are incredibly creative and have always been so. Technology today just gives them a ton of more avenues to explore. Toys in the past were generally limited to blocks, dolls, trucks, and crayons. We still have these, of course, but we also now have virtual reality headsets that let kids explore the universe, first-person video games that let them fly, and interactive apps that project digital images into the real world. 

While there are lots of dangers that tech poses to kids, it has also given them the opportunity to create new worlds and experience things young people could have only ever dreamt of in the past. 

Immediate answers to questions

Never before in the history of humanity have we had such immediate access to knowledge. Even compared to the 90s, the change has been enormous. Gone are the days of having to look up information at the library or in musty old volumes of encyclopedias. 

But even beyond research, the everyday curiosity of kids can be answered by AI in a matter of seconds. A quick question to Alexa or Siri can instantly provide the weather, the capital of Italy, or Zenday’s birthday. 

These shortcuts can make our lives better, but be sure your kid knows how to find answers themselves. Also, teach your child that even these technological conveniences can be wrong sometimes, and to take everything with a grain of salt. 

Algorithms

An algorithm, at its most simple, is just a set of instructions. The steps to tying your shoes is an algorithm, for example. But today, AI-based algorithms control and help make sense of a lot of the online content we see. 

Your kid encounters algorithms whenever they google something — how the results are ranked is determined by AI, as it helps to find the most fitting article. They also encounter algorithms when on social media, YouTube, Amazon, and more.

TikTok’s algorithm is known to be one of the most powerful in the world, as it continually learns what a user likes by monitoring how long videos are watched and whether you comment or like them. It takes this info and then shows you more videos it thinks you will be interested in. 

This could be a good thing if your kid is learning more about dinosaurs. It’s not so good if the content is about disordered eating or hate speech.

Facial recognition filters

If you type “photo editor” into the App Store, you’ll get tons of results. There are so many apps that promise to provide filters and enhancements for amazing selfies. Some promise flawless skin, a reshaped face, and even the ability to open your eyes if they’re accidentally closed in a photo. Many of these apps are free, which means they’re easy for kids to download. 

Of course, kids aren’t born wanting filtered faces. They’re eased into it, often through kid-focused, “fun” filters that add puppy ears or angel haloes. As they get older, kids will encounter filter options that include more adult-appropriate adjustments. These include prominent cheekbones, larger eyes, and plumper lips. 

But these types of filters aren’t just in fun apps… they’re everywhere. There’s even an option on Zoom, which many kids relied on during distance learning, called “Touch up my appearance.” It’s possible that many kids may never post a photo of themselves without having altered it in some way. It’s no wonder that body image issues are growing more and more common — even in kids as young as four.

Learning

ChatGPT is perhaps the most talked-about AI tool right now, and it’s definitely making waves in the education community. Here are just a few examples of homework questions kids might ask ChatGPT:

• “Write me a 300-word essay on the theme of revenge in Hamlet.”
• Solve for x: 2x + 35 = 6x
• “Compare and contrast the French and English revolutions.”
• “What are the themes of To Kill a Mockingbird.”
• “Create a sweet poem about a family’s golden retriever.”
• “How do I make an image tag in HTML?”
• “If train A is moving at 30 m.p.h. and train B is moving at 60 m.p.h. and they start 100 miles away from each other, when will they meet?

But it’s important to remember that just as computers and graphing calculators didn’t signal the end of education as we know it, this probably won’t either. The traditional model of assigning students a take-home essay may simply evolve, resulting in more in-class writing exercises. It will always be important for kids to understand the why behind what they learn — not just the answers. Learning how to use ChatGPT may become more important than the outcomes it provides.

How Bark Can Help

Here at Bark, we have a lot of resources that can help parents better understand their children’s world. From tech guides and app reviews to videos and blog posts, we strive to keep families in the know when it comes to technology. 

Our award-winning parental controls also use AI to help protect kids online and in real life. Our monitoring feature scans your child’s online activities — like texts and social media posts — and alerts you if it detects issues like predators, bullying, depression, and more. Try Bark free for a week to see how it can transform your family’s online safety.

Dear Titania,

My daughter is 9 years old and some of her friends have already gotten phones. I’m so stressed! I have no idea what the right time for a first phone is — different articles say everything from 10 to 16! How do I know what’s best? 

Signed,

Wondering When It’s The Right Time

Dear Wondering When It’s The Right Time,

Welcome to the question of the hour for so many parents around the world! Giving your kid their first phone has joined other classic childhood rites of passage like the first day of school, riding a bike without training wheels, and getting a driver’s license. 

Generally speaking, there’s no age when kids are magically ready for a phone. Some experts suggest ages 10–14, which is when many kids start to be responsible enough to have a phone. But you know your kid best. 

Fourth grade might seem too young, but maybe they have some medical issues and you want to make sure you can reach them quickly at a sleepover in an emergency. 

On the flip side — tenth grade might seem too old, but maybe your kid has had some behavior problems in the past, and a phone would only exacerbate things. The folks over at Wait Until 8th have resources for families that choose to wait until around age 13 or so, which is often a popular age since that’s when many social media platforms officially allow teens to have accounts.

So, the short answer is: it depends on a ton of factors! The long answer is…this post. Don’t worry, though — I’ll give you lots of things to consider, checklists, ideas, and more. Let’s get into it!

3 Questions to Get You Thinking

Before we get started, I just want to say that there is no right answer to this question: every family is different, and there are healthy ways for kids to navigate life both with and without a cell phone. You just have to pick what’s right for your child.  

1. What’s prompting the first-phone discussion?

Peer pressure

You mentioned that your kid’s friends were all getting phones. Peer pressure, both from other kids and other parents, can be a pretty strong influence — especially when phones are used to communicate plans for hanging out.

Safety

A natural part of growing up is gaining some independence apart from parents. There are going to be things like playdates and after-school activities where you won’t be right there with them. But if they have a phone, you can have instant communication. In a lot of ways, kids having a phone is easy protection against the unknowns of the outside world, especially with tools like location tracking.

Socialization

We mentioned above the power of peer pressure — it’s a strong one. But this is made all the more so because of how kids socialize. Apart from using a text to plan a meet-up, many kids play games online together or chat in group threads. 

2. Is your kid ready? A checklist

It all comes down to responsibility — is your kid responsible enough to have their own phone? The only way to answer that is to look at how they’ve proven (or not proven) their responsibility with other things. For example:

• Do they obey current screen time rules for TV/video games?
• Do they keep up with their schoolwork?
• Do they own up to their mistakes?
• Do they frequently lose or misplace things?
• Do they get distracted easily?
• How well do they handle conflict and receive punishment?

Regardless of your answers, it’s still going to be a leap of faith at the end of the day. You’ll never feel 100% confident that they’re ready, but as long as you and your kid have a healthy level of trust and keep the communication lines open, that’s a good place to start.

3. Are you as a parent ready for this?

I’m not going to sugarcoat it — when your kid gets their first phone, it’s a lot of work. You want to keep on top of their usage, which is where parental controls come into play. Setting screen time limits, blocking inappropriate websites (of which there are millions!), and trying to keep your kid off it 24/7 can be a struggle. 

A tool like Bark definitely makes it easier, but you’ll also need to set expectations and lay down ground rules. I recommend sitting down with your kid and creating a tech contract even before they get a phone so they can know what to expect. 

As a caveat: In all my chats with parents across the country over the years, one thing I’ve never heard a parent say is “I waited too long to give my kid a phone.” Phones will always be there — and kids will have their whole lives to use one. If you want to prolong childhood a little longer by waiting to give them a phone, that’s absolutely fine!

Still Not Sure? Take Our First Phone Quiz!

Even though you’ve learned a lot about what goes into an important decision like this, it can still be really hard to figure out a final answer! We recommend checking our first phone quiz to get a better idea of whether your child is ready. 

Alternatives to Phones

Many parents use a kid’s smartwatch as a stepping stone to the first phone. These devices have features like location tracking and limited texting and calling, which are a good way to ease your child into the world of instantaneous communication. Plus, you can get peace of mind when it comes to safety by always knowing where your kid is. We’ve put together a list of our favorite options here. 

How Bark Can Help

No matter when you choose to give your child a phone, Bark can help it make the experience safer. I recommend the Bark Phone, which comes with our parental controls built in, and you can customize nearly every setting on it. For younger kids, you can even make it text-and-talk only. As they get older, you can gradually add in more functionality. It’s the best first phone option out there — period. 

I hope this helps! That first phone is a huge milestone, and there’s no right or wrong answer — only how you and your family decide to tackle it together. 

Content warning: discussion of sexual assault

April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month, a time set aside to bring to light how widespread sexual violence is across the world. It’s also a month dedicated to educating people about prevention and providing resources.

Although Bark is a parental control company, our service alerts parents to many of the most pressing issues in a child’s life — from bullying and online predators to depression and suicidal ideation. Sexual assault is no different, and parents need to know what’s going on in order to support their children in times of distress. 

What Bark Looks For

Content warning: discussion of activities that involve sexual assault

Our advanced technology scans a child’s online activities — like texts, emails, and social media posts — for potential dangers. When it comes to sexual assault, we look for keywords as well as context. Here are a few examples of messages that would be flagged:

• im going but im scared because there’s old men there and i have a okay body and im scared i will get r@ped again.......
• he told them he was going to rape someone and she is one of my friends
• My cousin has been molesting me for 3 years and I’m freaking out because I’m going to press charges finally. Don’t tell anybody at church bc he goes there too.
• j touched me again yesterday. i am so close to crying and it gave me flashbacks from before

Monitoring Can Pick Up Things Kids May Be Hesitant to Reveal

Kids use their phones for everything these days, and this includes talking about and processing emotions after sexual assault. These often lie hidden out of sight of a parent and can look like a text to a friend describing the encounter or a journal in a Google Doc detailing the feelings that are arising. Bark’s advanced technology scans these types of online activities for keywords and context, and sends parents alerts when a potential issue is detected. 

If you’re wondering why a kid wouldn’t want to immediately disclose an assault to their parent, the answer is it’s complicated. Some kids may feel like they’ll get in trouble.  Others might be getting manipulated by their abuser, who could be threatening their well-being or that of their family. Some kids — especially younger children — may not even know how to process what’s happened to them. 

Statistics about Sexual Assault

Tragically, sexual assault is not uncommon in the U.S. Here are some statistics gathered from the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN), the nation's largest anti-sexual violence organization.

• One in 9 girls and 1 in 20 boys under the age of 18 experience sexual abuse or assault.
• Every 9 minutes, evidence of child sex abuse is corroborated or confirmed.
• Children of all gender identities experience sexual violence.
• While all children can experience sexual assault, those who have physical or mental disabilities or who have unstable home lives are at greater risk.
• Children who live in low-income households are more likely to experience sexual abuse.

Warning Signs of Sexual Abuse

It isn’t easy to tell if your child has experienced sexual abuse, but watching out for some potential warning signs can help. Pay attention if your kid:

• Regresses to wetting the bed
• Complains of physical ailments with no underlying cause
• Tries to avoid getting undressed
• Starts having excessive nightmares
• Has sudden knowledge about sexual topics that aren’t typical to their age
• Out of the blue has money, toys, or other gifts without reason

Online Resources That Can Help

If you believe your child is currently in danger or if you’d like to file a report with your local police station, you can call 911 at any time. You can also call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 800-656-4673 to talk to someone who is trained to help in situations like this.

The Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline is also available 24/7 via call or text message at 800-422-4453. Their trained volunteers can guide you through the reporting process.

You can learn about mandatory reporting laws in your state by visiting RAINN’s State Law Database.

Remember pen pals? Growing in the 80s and 90s, you may have even had one — or knew someone who did. Maybe it was through a program at school, or a friend from summer camp. Today there’s something similar: online friends! Some may be people a kid knows in real life, while others could be entirely online — and they may never actually meet. 

Online friendships aren’t inherently bad, and for a generation of kids that had to make do with virtual playdates throughout the lockdown years of the pandemic, they’re part of life. In this post, we’ll discuss some of the pros and cons of these relationships, as well as how you can help protect your kid online and in real life. 

Pros of Online Friendships

Increased social connections

Online friendships can help children and teenagers connect with other individuals who share similar interests and hobbies. This can be especially valuable for kids who may struggle to make friends in their local community or who feel isolated or lonely.

Greater accessibility

Online friendships can be formed regardless of geographic location, making it easier for children and teenagers to connect with peers from all over the world. This can be especially beneficial for kids who may not have access to diverse communities or who live in rural or remote areas.

Safe space for self-expression

Online friendships can offer a safe space for children and teenagers to express themselves and explore their identities without fear of judgment or criticism. This can be particularly important for kids who may be struggling with issues like bullying, harassment, or discrimination in their offline lives.

Cons of Online Friendships

Risk of online predators

One of the biggest risks associated with online friendships is the potential for children and teenagers to be targeted by online predators. These individuals may use social media platforms, chat rooms, or other online forums to groom children and gain their trust, often with the intention of engaging in sexual exploitation or other forms of abuse.

Exposure to inappropriate content

Online friendships can expose children and teenagers to a wide range of inappropriate content. This can include simple profanity, violence, hate speech, and extremist propaganda. This can be particularly concerning for parents who are worried about the impact of exposure to such content on their children's mental health and wellbeing.

Lack of face-to-face interaction

Online friendships also lack the benefits of face-to-face interaction, such as the ability to read body language and facial expressions, build trust and empathy, and develop interpersonal social skills. This can be especially concerning for parents who worry about the impact of excessive screen time on their children's development.

Tips for Managing Online Friendships

While online friendships can offer several benefits for kids and teenagers, it's important for parents to take steps to manage and monitor these relationships to ensure their children's safety and wellbeing. Here are a few tips to help parents navigate this complex issue:

Educate your children about online safety

Make sure your children understand the risks associated with online friendships and how to stay safe online. Teach them about the importance of protecting their personal information, setting privacy settings, and avoiding interactions with strangers online.

Notice how your child is acting

Keep an eye on your children's online activity and look for signs of potential risks or dangers, such as unusual or secretive behavior, inappropriate messages or content, or changes in mood or behavior. Online friends may affect how they start to behave, especially if the friend may be a bad influence.

Set clear rules and boundaries

Establish expectations for your child’s online activity with things like limiting screen time, prohibiting certain types of content or interactions, and requiring regular check-ins. We recommend sitting down and filling out a tech contract so everyone is on the same page when it comes to behavior. 

Encourage offline socialization

While online friendships can be valuable, it's important for kids to make real-life friends and develop face-to-face relationships with peers. Encourage your children to participate in extracurricular activities, join clubs or organizations, or attend social events in their local community.

How Bark Can Help

Bark is an all-in-one parental control tool that can help you manage nearly every aspect of your child’s online world. You can block websites and apps that may be causing trouble, set up screen time limits to encourage healthy boundaries, and keep an eye on their location. 

But Bark’s most powerful feature is our content monitoring. It scans your kid’s texts, emails, and social media platforms for potential dangers and sends you alerts concerning interactions. This way, you can check in and make sure everything is okay if your child is facing issues in online friendships like bullying, depression, online predators, and more. Sign up today for a free, one-week trial.

**This blog post was updated on Nov. 27, 2023.**

Roblox is one of the most popular online games in the world, beloved by kids all over. But there’s more to this building and gaming app that parents need to know about. We’ve researched the top five hidden dangers of Roblox — from sexual content to money-grabbing scams. Let’s dive in!

First: A Roblox Refresher

Roblox isn’t just one game — it’s a platform hosting literally millions of games that players can jump into. Other users create these games, which all take place in the Roblox world and are designed in the Roblox animation style. If it looks familiar, it’s because it resembles the blocky characters in Lego and Minecraft.

As for deciding what kind of game you want to play, there are countless options. Many of the games on Roblox are free or cheaper versions of other popular video games, like Animal Crossing or Fortnite. You’ll often find games with characters and settings from pop culture — worlds that kids like to spend time in.

Top 5 Hidden Dangers of Roblox

Condo games

Roblox isn’t just fun action and adventure games. There’s a whole subculture of users who make “games” that revolve around sex referred to as condo games. You’ll see naked avatars (the images of players) interacting in sexually suggestive ways. In other words, it’s basically interactive pornography, and it’s definitely not for children. 

Roblox Discord servers 

In addition to actually playing Roblox, many fans will also want to talk about it with others — and they often head to chat app Discord for that. If you search Google for “Roblox Discord servers” you’ll find links to countless groups to join. This presents a huge risk for kids, as any time there’s a huge public chat room, there’s a near certainty that online predators will be lurking in it. On top of that, many folks use these groups to share links to inappropriate content — both on Roblox and elsewhere. There's also a new video chat feature called Connect where users hang out in the form of their avatars  — i.e., as the animated versions of themselves. 

Inappropriate Roblox YouTube videos

If you think Roblox isn’t right for your kid and end up blocking it — beware. Even if you can’t play the game, you can watch tons of videos of Roblox on YouTube and other video streaming apps like Twitch. And yep, you guessed it: You can also watch videos of the condo games we mentioned earlier. 

Bypassed audio clips that definitely aren’t appropriate

Roblox allows users to upload audio files, but there are rules governing them. You can’t use copyrighted content, and you can’t upload sounds that would violate community guidelines. When audio somehow gets past moderation, it’s referred to as “bypassed audio” since it bypassed the rules. These clips could include profanity, violence, sex sounds, and even screeching chaotic noise. 

Scams

Robux, the in-game currency players use to buy upgrades and avatar accessories, can be obtained in a few different ways. You can buy Robux with real money, earn them through Roblox Premium, or receive them through designing games. Make sure your child knows to ignore players who are offering free Robux — they’re phishing scams.

How Bark Can Help

Bark actually monitors Roblox! On Android devices and the Bark Phone, Bark can scan content searches and sent chats. By monitoring sent chats, you can stay informed about who your child is communicating with and the nature of their conversations. Detecting potentially harmful content searches can help you identify any inappropriate searches, empowering you to address issues proactively.

In addition to monitoring, Bark also lets you block Roblox entirely or choose when your child can use it throughout the day with our screen time scheduling. Visit bark.us/signup to start your free trial today!

If your child plays Roblox on a gaming console like an Xbox or PlayStation, Bark Home can do the same thing! We've also got a handy guide to how to set up Roblox parental controls for parents that walks you through everything you need to know.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that lots of kids love video games. Gen Z had pong and Atari. Millenials had Mario, Mortal Kombat, and Goldeneye. Now, today’s generation has Fortnite, Call of Duty, Clash of Clans, and thousands of other options on multiple platforms. But with all this exposure, it’s important to talk about the negative effects of video games and what they can mean for kids. In this blog post, we’ll discuss the dangers, potential issues like addiction, as well as some of the most problematic games for kids. 

The Negative Effects of Video Games

While video gaming isn’t all bad — there can be great benefits like improved hand-eye coordination, relaxation, and socialization — there negative effects of video games can outweigh them.

Addiction

The most common issue parents need to watch out for is known as internet gaming disorder, which is also known as video game addiction.Whenever a kid plays a video game, they get a hit of dopamine. Over time, some kids may seek out video games for longer periods of time to get that same feeling. In this way, video game addiction isn’t unlike an addiction to gambling, smoking, or alcohol. Symptoms include:

• Intense preoccupation with gaming
• Loss of interest in other activities
• Irritability and anxiety when not playing
• Falling grades

Desensitization to violence

This one can be hard to quantify, and it may not even apply to all children who play video games, since not all games are violent. But for the games that are super violent (more on that below), they can affect how a child views and reacts to physical aggression. Experts are split on how harmful they can be, but many parents simply don’t want their children to have exposure  to death, violence, and more on a regular basis. 

All Video Games ≠ For Kids

Let’s face it: kids play a lot of video games because they have a ton of free time. Video game companies know this and market specifically to them, and it’s worked for years. But as technology has progressed, video games have become increasingly complex. Some games are essentially 20-hour long interactive movies, complete with character development and immersive stories. Many of these are even rated adults only, and contain nudity, graphic violence, profanity, and other types of mature content. A basic rule of thumb is: don’t assume that just because it’s a video game, it’s okay for a kid to play. 

Examples of Dangerous Video Games

Graphic violence

Realistic 3-D rendering and vivid graphics makes violence incredibly realistic in modern games. Here are two examples of two of the most popular violent titles today. You’ve probably heard of them — they’re households name due to their long-lasting succession of sequels and reboots.

Mortal Kombat

Mortal Kombat was originally released as an arcade game in 1992, and has been making waves with its punishing violence ever since. The latest version of this fighting game, Mortal Kombat 11, builds on the original’s brutality, and is widely available on PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, and PC. The game revolves around powerful characters fighting to the death — but not before bloody mutilation and dismemberment. 

Call of Duty 

This first-person shooter franchise has been around since 2003, and it’s one of the most popular video games of all time. The games have been set in World War Two battlefields, the Cold War, the War Against Terror, and many others. The most recent installment, Modern Warfare 2, was released in 2022, and features a civilian mass shooting at an airport. These games feature intense scenes of battle with aggressive shooting and fighting. This, coupled with the fact that many players game online in real time with people from across the world, makes it fairly intense for kids.

Horror

Scary storytelling used to be the purview of films and novels, but video games, it turns out, can also do it quite well. 

Five Nights at Freddy’s

Remember Chuck E. Cheese? That’s basically the premise of Five Nights at Freddy’s. Locked after hours in a family pizza restaurant, you play as a night shift employee who must fend off the evil animatronic characters. It’s filled with spine-tingling jump scares, loads of creepy bad guys, and blood-curdling screams. The game(and its many sequels) are generally rated for teens and above, so it’s not like an R-rated movie, but for younger kids it can be a little overwhelming. 

Resident Evil 7

This franchise has been around for decades, and essentially kicked off the “survival horror” genre. Gameplay revolved around eliminating genetically engineered zombies with weapons like chainsaws, shotguns, flamethrowers, and explosives. Modern versions of the game have also incorporated VR headsets to make an immersive horror gaming experience.

Adult content

When it comes to topics, nothing is off-limits in some video games, and that can include encounters with alcohol, illegal drugs, sex, crime, and more.

Grand Theft Auto 

Another successful franchise over the years, the Grand Theft Auto franchise has been around since the 1990s. Through the various versions, your character drives around cities and completes missions related to revenge, drug deals, and crime. 

How Bark Can Help

If you’re concerned about your child’s video game usage, start by simply talking to them about it. Ask why they enjoy their favorite game and try to understand their perspective before jumping to conclusions. If your child does have a video game addiction, remind them that you are always there to support them as you take steps to get them help. 

Bark also wants to support your family when it comes to screen time and technology use. Our service lets parents monitor what their child is doing online so they can see if there are causes for concern related to video game use. It can also help parents manage screen time to ensure that their children are not using their devices more than they should be. Start your free trial today!

As a parent, your first instinct is to protect your child from all of the hard corners of life. This is usually straightforward, like dealing with bullying, taking care of them when they’re sick, and helping to teach them about online safety.  But if your child is hurting themselves (known as self-harm) — or even if you suspect they may be — it can be incredibly scary and stressful. It can be hard to know what to do. In this blog post, you’ll learn how to recognize self-harm, why it happens, and how to support your child if they need help. 

What Does Self-Harm Look Like?

Self-harm is more common than many people realize, with 10% of teens stating that they’ve done it. The average age self-harm starts happening is 12–15, and it’s more common in girls than in boys.

Self-harm is when someone hurts themselves on purpose. It can be done in many different ways, including:

• Cutting, scratching, or burning the skin on the body
• Hitting or banging parts of the body
• Piercing the skin
• Picking at existing wounds
• Exercising to the point of injury
• Pulling out hair

Many of these harmful activities can leave lasting scars, marks, bruises, or injuries. Someone may wear baggy clothes to cover up evidence of their self-harm, even in hot weather when long sleeves/pants aren’t usual. 

Why Do Teens and Tweens Self-Harm?

Growing up is never easy, but for some kids, it’s made harder by certain life events. People tend to engage in self-harm as a way to cope with negative emotions. It’s not a mental health disorder in itself, but it usually co-occurs with issues like depression, borderline personality disorder, PTSD, disordered eating, and more. Even though it may be related to suicidal behavior, self-harm may not always mean a persons want to end their life. Here are a few reasons that kids may engage in self-destructive behaviors.

Control 

For kids struggling with overwhelming emotions, self-harm may help them feel like they’re temporarily in control of something — even if it's painful and harming them. 

Punishment  

Feelings of guilt or shame may lead a person to hurt themselves as a sort of penance. It may make them feel better in the moment, but it can become a vicious cycle.

Distraction  

If a child hasn’t learned how to manage painful or overwhelming feelings, self-harm may provide an avenue to distract themselves from their emotions — albeit an unhealthy one. Replacing emotional pain with physical pain gives them something else to focus on.

The Dangers of Self-Harm Online Communities

Kids struggling with self-harm may turn to social media for advice, support, and a place to talk about what they’re feeling. This may sound like a nice idea, but in reality, these communities may only cause further harm. Instead of receiving support, kids may be triggered. They may also get tips and pointers for how to actually engage in self-harm or hide it. 

Platforms like Instagram and TikTok ostensibly prevent users from searching for content with hashtags related to self-harm. When you search for them, you’re instead served a notice for how to contact the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. However, there are tons of workarounds to actually get to self-harm content, so it’s not entirely effective. 

On Reddit, the community r/Selfharm has more than 100,000 members, which shows just how widespread this issue is, especially online. 

How to Support Your Child

The stigma around self-harm might make it hard for your child to come to you for help. Feelings of shame, embarrassment, and fear that you’ll be angry at them may make it even harder. The first and best thing you can do is to tell them that you love them and you’re here to help. Making sure they learn positive coping skills will help them get better.

If your child is suicidal, get them immediate help. If they’re not, the next step is to figure out how to get them treatment. Your child’s pediatrician can provide resources and referrals to specialists. Other resources to turn to include school counselors and trusted family members.

How Bark Can Help

While the physical signs of self-harm may be hard to detect, oftentimes kids discuss it online. This could look like a text to a friend, an Instagram post, or writing about it in a Google Doc. Bark’s advanced technology scans your child’s online activities for signs of self-harm  — along with other dangers like bullying, depression, and more – and sends you an alert if something concerning is found. This way, you can check in and make sure everything’s okay.

Resources 

• Crisis Text Line: How to Deal With Self-Harm
• Trevor Project: Support for Self-Harm Recovery
• National Alliance on Mental Illness: Resources for Self-Harm
• Children's Hospital Colorado: A Pediatrician’s Guide to Non-Suicidal Self-Harm in Teenagers

If you’ve been on the internet lately, you may have heard about a website called ChatGPT. The buzz around it has been intense since it launched on November 30, 2022, and in just a few short weeks it amassed 100 million users. Demand has grown so much that a paid subscription offering priority access was announced on February 1. 

Fans of the chatbot are hailing it as the answer to, well, nearly anything, as ChatGPT can write essays, solve math problems, code websites, compose poetry, and more. Detractors, on the other hand, claim that it will destroy creativity, kill jobs, and ruin education.

There are tons of questions around how ChatGPT will affect society as a whole, but in this post, we’re going to specifically talk about how it can affect kids, as well as what parents need to know about this technology.

What Is ChatGPT?

Simply put, ChatGPT is a website where users can ask questions and get answers from an incredibly sophisticated chatbot. The company behind ChatGPT is called OpenAI, and it works with all sorts of artificial intelligence. You may also have heard of OpenAI’s DALL-E, which takes user prompts and generates graphic designs in a matter of seconds. 

Anyone can create a free account, and we recommend parents check it out firsthand to see what it’s all about. 

How Does ChatGPT Work?

The tech behind ChatGPT is super complex, but it’s worth explaining a little about how it works. In fact, you’re probably already familiar with it and may not even realize it! If you’ve ever used spell check and predictive text on your phone or asked a question in a chat window on a company’s website, you’ve taken advantage of machine learning. 

ChatGPT uses pattern recognition and access to tons of information to make decisions. Human brains do this, too, but not at the speed or volume that machines are capable oof.

Let’s break down a simple example. Suppose I asked you and ChatGPT to finish this sentence: “The ice cream was ____.” 

Your first guess would probably be along the lines of “delicious”, “creamy”, or “cold.” ChatGPT knows this too, based on all of the human data it's been fed — information from books, websites, articles, and more. It won’t answer “spiky”, “hot”, or “ugly”, just like you wouldn’t. 

This was only a simple example, too. ChatGPT can use the same principles to answer incredibly complex questions that take much longer to explain. But this is where it gets complicated, and where the chatbot’s limitations come into focus. We’ll get more into these issues later.

How Kids Might Use ChatGPT for School

As a parent, this is probably your first concern — especially considering that some schools have already started banning it. Here are just a few examples of questions kids might ask ChatGPT:

• “Write me a 300-word essay on the theme of revenge in Hamlet.”
• Solve for x: 2x + 35 = 6x
• “Compare and contrast the French and English revolutions.”
• “What are the themes of To Kill a Mockingbird.”
• “Create a sweet poem about a family’s golden retriever.”
• “How do I make an image tag in HTML?”
• “If train A is moving at 30 m.p.h. and train B is moving at 60 m.p.h. and they start 100 miles away from each other, when will they meet?

It can not only give correct answers to these questions, but it can also explain its reasoning in the cases of math problems — it shows its work, in other words.

Is This the End of Education?

This is the question on every parent and teacher’s mind right now, and it’s understandable. ChatGPT seems like a magic genie that has the instant answer to nearly any question. It even recently passed — though just barely! — law, medical, and business school exams.

But it’s important to remember that just as computers and graphing calculators didn’t signal the end of education as we know it, this probably won’t either. At the end of the day, technology is a tool, and an imperfect one, at that. The traditional model of assigning students a take-home essay may evolve, resulting in more in-class writing exercises. It will always be important for kids to understand the why behind what they learn.

Why ChatGPT Isn’t Perfect

Can ChatGPT generate remarkably human-sounding words? Absolutely. Is it perfect? Definitely not. Here are a few of the issues it has:

It can be plain wrong

Human experiences and information don’t always conform to logic, and ChatGPT can run into problems because of this. But because it so confidently and quickly spits out answers, kids may believe they’re always 100% true.

It can still reflect human biases

ChatGPT is based on information that humans created, and it can mirror prejudices that exist in the data it’s fed with. This can include harmful positions about marginalized groups.

It will never be as creative as a real person

While ChatGPT is truly remarkable and probably the closest we’ve come to human-sounding answers in text form, it’s always…missing something. The more you play around with it, the more you can start to see its patterns. (Hopefully, teachers will, too!)

Some Conversation Starters

We recommend pulling up ChatGPT (you can create a free account) and sitting down with your kid to explore it together. Here are few ways to get a conversation started:

• Type in a query that has something to do with preference or personal taste, like “What is the best flavor of ice cream.” ChatGPT will return an answer that says it’s an AI model, and as such, can’t have a favorite. It will then spit out some of the most popular flavors. 
  • Ask your kid “Why do you think this answer is so generic?” and “Why can humans give better answers when it comes to things they love?”
• Give ChatGPT a relatively complicated question, like “Why did Britain lose the Revolutionary War?” The answer it gives will be a tight, well-structured, five-point analysis. It’s entirely correct — but it doesn’t sound like a 14-year-old wrote it. 
  • Ask your child “Why would a teacher think that a kid didn’t write this? Can you point to any specific parts?” Remind them that their teacher knows their performance as a student  — as well as their specific style, quotes, and even usual errors. 
• When you’re done asking ChatGPT questions together, ask your kid if they know how it works. This can be enlightening, because many children may understand that it gives passable responses, but not how it reaches its conclusion. 
  • Ask “How do you think ChatGPT comes up with all these answers? How can you tell if it’s giving you a correct answer?”

How Bark Can Help

If you’re worried about your child using ChatGPT, Bark can help you set healthy boundaries around it. You can limit when your kid can access it — like not during the school day, for example. You can also block it entirely, if needed. It’s up to you! 

If you’ve ever seen a person out in public dressed up like a cartoon animal character in a fursuit, you may have been confused as to why they were dressed like a mascot out in public. You may have even wondered what they actually do. They’re called furries, and it turns out that there’s a very large community — both online and in real life — they belong to.

Many kids today are also expressing interest in furries, but there are issues and dangers that parents need to know about. In this blog post, we’ll answer common questions (like what *is* a furry) about this lifestyle, as well as provide talking points if your kid is interested in furries.

What Is a Furry Exactly?

A furry is someone who is interested in anthropomorphic art and characters. Anthropomorphic means “resembling a human,” and so with furries, it means animals that resemble or have human characteristics. A classic example of the appeal of this art style that our generation may understand is the fox from Disney’s 1973 Robin Hood.

You don’t have to dress up like a furry to identify as one, and in fact most don’t. Self-identified furries do, however, often create a “fursona,” which is like an alter-ego or character. These fursonas can have names and physical and emotional characteristics. Sometimes, they’re very different from the person’s day-to-day personality, though not necessarily.

What Do Furries Do?

Like fans of anything — whether it’s baseball, the Bachelor, or Orangetheory — furries like to read, write, and talk about their interest. Some furries like to role-play in groups or online with like-minded people. Others like to post their art and look at others. There are furry conventions that take place all over the world, where people meet up to hang out, attend panels, buy art, party, and more. Think of it like ComicCon, but for all things furry.

Does This Mean My Kid Wants to be an Animal?

Not at all! Expressing an interest in furry culture is like expressing an interest in other hobbies. Where it may get confusing is when kids want to pretend, but playing pretend is a pretty popular pastime for kids in general. So are immersive role-playing games that are also popular.

Are Furries a Sex Thing?

The short answer is not necessarily. Someone can be a furry and into furry activities without ever expressing an interest in anything sexual — ever.

There are, however, individuals that combine the furry lifestyle with pornography, sexual acts, art, and more. After doing some research, our team found that the term “furry porn” had more than 600,000 search queries, which shows just how much content there is around the more adult aspects of furry content. 

Is Being a Furry Safe for Kids?

It definitely can be! Kids can be interested in drawing furries, watching furry videos, or just playing around with friends. Danger comes into play in a few different ways. For example, when kids may be communicating with adults who use furry activity to begin the grooming process. If a child wants to attend a furry convention, you’ll want to make sure it is kid-friendly (some are adult-only) and that a trusted adult is with them at all times. But you know your child best, and some kids may not be mature enough for this type of activity. 

Another danger is exposure to inappropriate furry content, which kids can find easily and quickly all over the internet — from Reddit to Instagram. Furry porn can be images, fan fiction, and videos, both animated and in-person, and may include adults, children, and animals.

Do All Furries Wear Fursuits?

According to Furscience, a group of researchers who study furry culture, less than 25% of furries own suits. They can actually be pretty expensive! Like with any hobby or fandom, interest levels lay along a spectrum. Some people may go all out and build a suit, and some may be happy just having a furry name. Still others may just like watching furry content on the internet.

What’s a Fursona?

A Fursona (a portmanteau of furry and persona) is like a person’s alter ego in the furry world. It can consist of a name, a species, personality traits, back story, and habits. Kids especially can get super creative when it comes to imagining a character’s world and interests. 

Where Do Furries Hang Out Online?

There are so many places online where furries chat, hang out, and post content. Here are just a few of some of the more popular places:

• The subreddit r/Furry has more than 327,000 members.
• Searching #furry on Tumblr, Instagram, and TikTok turns up millions of posts and videos. 
• FurAffinity.net hosts fan-created art.
• Discord has furry-themed servers for chatting and roleplaying.
• Twitch and YouTube have furry live streamers.
• Furry characters can appear in Roblox.
• WikiFur is an online encyclopedia for all things furry.
• FurAffinity.net, a repository for images, photos, and projects.

How Do I Talk to My Kid About Furries?

If your kid has expressed an interest in furries, you may be concerned or worried. This is okay! The internet has made a lot of things more mainstream than when we were kids. Having an interest in drawing human-fox cartoon characters can be no different than being obsessed with Legos, loving horses, or wanting to read every Star Wars book. Here are a few ways to start a conversation with your child about their interest:

• What is your favorite furry character?
• Where did you learn about furries?
• Do you have friends that like them too?

Once you’ve established a baseline around their interest, you may want to talk about some of the dangers they may face:

• Some bad people online may talk about furry stuff to trick kids. Have you seen this happen?
• What would you do if an adult started talking to you online about furry stuff?
• Do you know that some furry content is only for adults?

Help Protect Your Child Online with Bark

Kids that express an interest in furry culture may be at risk from predators because of the very nature of furry content — kids like cartoons and sweet animals. Predators know this and may use a child’s love of these creatures to begin grooming them. A recent case (content warning that there are graphic details) involved a grown, self-identified furry man who was communicating with a 13-year-old online (via platforms like Twitter, Discord, Oculus, and TextNow) and later abducted the child. Thankfully, the teen was found alive.

Sadly, these kinds of interactions aren’t uncommon. Bark can help you keep your child safe online by monitoring texts, apps, and popular social media platforms for signs they’re being groomed by predators — in addition to bullying, depression, suicidal ideation, and more. You’ll get an alert for concerning conversations so you can check in and make sure everything’s okay. Bark also lets you block dangerous apps like Snapchat and Discord so you can help prevent these types of conversations from happening, as well. 

**This blog post was updated on February 15, 2024.**

Congratulations on your child’s new Bark Phone! It’s a little different from other phones you may have set up in the past — and that’s a good thing. The Bark Phone lets you manage nearly every aspect of your child’s phone experience so you can help keep them safe online and in real life. This blog post provides the top 5 tips for setting up the Bark Phone, but we also have a quick-start help article that has step-by-step instructions for extra support.

Top 5 Tips for Setting Up Your New Bark Phone

Set your high-level controls for the Bark Phone

As a parent, you know your child best, which is why the Bark Phone gives you the ability to toggle on and off basic functions like texting, using the camera, changing the settings, and more. As a general rule, the younger your kid is, the more of these you’ll probably want to disable. As they get older — or start demonstrating more maturity —  you can easily add back in functionality. 

Create screen time schedules to help keep your kid on task and well rested

You won't want your child checking out unboxing videos during school on their new phone, right? That’s where screen time schedules come in. You can choose exactly what your kid can access and when. For school time rules, for example, you can block access to everything but educational sites. And at bedtime, for instance, you could allow only podcasts and meditation apps to help them wind down. It’s up to you!

Get granular about what you want to block

Every family — and child! – is different, so being able to block websites and apps at any time is an important function. Bark allows you to block entire categories of sites (think sexual content, gaming sites, and more) as well as individual sites that you want to keep off limits. You can also block nearly everything and then manually add in just a few sites that you want them to be able to access. It’s up to you!

Set daily time limits for apps

With the Bark phone, you can set total daily time limits for the apps you choose to allow your kid to access them. This could look like “one hour of YouTube a day” or “4 hours of social media.” If no daily limits are set, your child can access them as long as they like — as long as the app or category isn’t blocked. 

Talk to your child about what to expect

Whether this is your kid’s first phone ever or just a new-to-them phone, it’s important to talk about it! This means sitting down and discussing rules of the road, screen time limits, and potential dangers. The Bark Phone experience will be pretty different for every family depending on what’s blocked and what’s allowed. When you decide what’s going to work for your family, let your child know! For example, explain that texting is turned off if it is. Let your kid know that you’ve put screen time limits on YouTube. This way, they won’t be surprised. You can also talk generally about Bark’s monitoring and Bark alerts — don’t worry, we have pointers for that discussion. And finally, make sure you make a tech contract with your kid to help them navigate life with a new smartphone.

Is Your Child Ready For A Phone?

One of the most frequently asked questions we get here at Bark is, “How do I know my child is ready for a phone?” So we made a quick and handy quiz to help you find out where your family stands!

How to Get a Bark Phone

Ready to get your very own Bark Phone? Plans start at just $39/month and include unlimited talk and text. Order yours today!

Somehow, 2022 is coming to a close and it’s already time to jump into a new year. But before we start the countdown, we wanted to take a moment to remember everything that made 2022 special. This particular year was a very exciting one for Bark (hello, Bark Phone!) so it only seems right to share some of our favorite moments from the past 12 months.

Let’s jump in! 

1 Phone released!  

The Bark Phone was the crowning jewel of 2022— actually, of every year at Bark! Tons of hard work, long hours, and creative minds went into the development of this phone, and we couldn’t be more proud. It’s safe to say the Bark team is all smiles when it comes to this phone, and we know every family who orders one will be, too! 

24: States that Bark employees are from  

With remote work being the norm at Bark, we’ve found that one of the best parts is working with people from all over the country. As of today, our 138 employees represent 24 total states in the U.S. Sometimes our work meetings are full of “y’alls” and complaining about the southern heat. Other times, they’re full of green bean casserole recipes from our friends in Michigan. It’s always a thrill to see the Bark love spread across the states! 

21,500,000+: People reached on Facebook in the last year

This incredible reach means parents are not only getting information about Bark’s parental controls, but they are also reading our resources about kids’ online safety and raising children in the digital age. We regularly post articles from child psychologists, news updates from social media companies, and even breakdowns of the latest TikTok trends! 

152: Adorable photos shared in the #petsofbark slack channel

Sometimes the best way to take a break from work is to give your pet a quick snuggle. And at Bark, we like to share those quick moments of pet lovin’ with each other! Clearly, with so many pictures shared, we love our pets a lot. And it’s no contest — we definitely have the cutest pets ever!

5: Teachers who each received $1,000 for our Back-to-School giveaway

Bark recognizes that teachers are an important part of a child’s growth and development, so we wanted to show our appreciation for all their hard work. Back in August, we asked members of the Bark community to nominate a teacher to win $1,000. Five lucky teachers from across the country got a big check to kick off the school year right. We give this 2022 moment an A+! 

289,068: Customer questions answered by our support team

You asked, we answered — literally! Our customer support team, which is available 7 days a week, works tirelessly to ensure you’re never left confused or frustrated with your Bark experience. When parents spend all day solving problems for their family, we’re happy to be the problem solvers when it comes to your kid’s online protection. Just reach out to help@bark.us and they’ll take good care of you.

92: Slang terms defined for parents 

If there’s one thing parents made clear to Bark, it’s that knowing teen slang is a hot commodity in today’s day and age. Our slang posts consistently saw the most traffic, so we scoured the internet for every word, phrase, and emoji used by young people. The best part? Using them in front of your kid and seeing the reaction on their face.

1,228: Number of times Bark was in the news

In order to inform parents about the dangers of the internet and let them know how Bark can help protect their kids with our top-notch parental controls, we have to make sure the Bark word is spread far and wide. And what better way to do that than to get major news outlets talking about us? 

60: “Blankets and Bear Hugs” made for the Child Rescue Coalition

One organization near and dear to Bark’s heart is the Child Rescue Coalition (CRC). The CRC works to protect and save children from child predators, specifically by providing technology to law enforcement. During our annual company-wide retreat in Atlanta, Bark team members got to take part in their Blankets and Bear Hugs program. We packed 60 care packages that were then given to officers to keep in patrol cars so that kids involved in their calls can be comforted. Big thanks to the CRC for letting Bark lend a helping hand in their important work. 

255,000+: Members of Parenting in a Tech World, our Facebook group 

If you’re in our Facebook group, this one goes out to you. PITW has become a constant flow of honest questions, personal advice, and much-needed encouragement for parents who feel a little lost in the digital age. And last year we had about 160k members, so that’s almost 100,000 more parents since then! If you’re not already in the group, you’re missing out on one of our best resources for parents. Be sure to check it out.

And now on to 2023…

We hope you finish 2022 strong and start the next one off even stronger. Here at Bark, we’ve got lots of plans up our sleeves that we can’t wait to show you – see you in 2023!

If you feel lost in a sea of content, looking for a safe, fun, and entertaining family TV show, you aren’t alone. While it was once easy to sift through three or four channels, with the rise of streaming, parents and kids now have hundreds of options—some more age-appropriate than others. To help you navigate the rough waters of finding just the right family TV show for your brood, we’ve gathered 10 top-rated shows and family TV networks that you can count on for wholesome, crowd-pleasing content.

Five Popular Family TV Shows

Modern Family—Streaming on Hulu and Peacock

This Emmy Award-winning comedy ran for 11 seasons, capturing the crazy and chaotic lives of traditional and nontraditional families. The light-hearted mockumentary entertains the whole family while providing feel-good lessons about family dynamics and friendships. Plus, short 20-minute episodes serve as the perfect treat post-homework for teens 13 and up.

MythBusters—Discovery Channel

MythBusters mixes education and entertainment to create a show that sparks curiosity and creativity in young minds. For 14 seasons, special effects experts Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman worked to methodically test some of the world’s biggest myths proving them true or false. From fun with jello to crash test craziness, parents and kids can laugh along and learn something from this science entertainment program.

The Mysterious Benedict Society —Disney+

The Mysterious Benedict Society is a new mystery adventure television series based on the children's books by Trenton Lee Stewart. The exciting and sometimes intense plot follows four orphans recruited by a mysterious benefactor to stop a global emergency. Parents and kids praise the show for its exciting cliffhangers and compelling storylines, which draw you back for each episode. While not scary, some scenes can be intense, and parent supervision is suggested for children younger than 10 years old.

Kids Baking Championship—Food Network and Amazon Prime

If your family has a competitive streak, Kids Baking Championship is just the show for you. Contestants 10-13 years old are invited to come up with and cook their best dishes made to impress the judges. Inventive and empowering, parents and kids can cheer on their favorites each week until only one winner remains! 

Just Add Magic—Amazon Prime

Described by parents as good, clean, wholesome fun, Just Add Magic focuses on three tween girls with a magic cookbook. The trio works together to solve mysterious problems as they deal with common coming-of-age issues. With a focus on friendship and family, parents love how the main characters model good values, and kids love riding along with all the fantastical adventures.

Five Popular Family TV Networks

Disney and Disney+

The original family-friendly TV network for years now, Disney cranks out new and exciting family-friendly content like The Mysterious Benedict Society and Andi Mack. It also showcases classics like Boy Meets World and Lizzie McGuire. Despite all of the great TV shows and movies, kids shouldn’t be given free rein when it comes to Disney+. The brand also has more mature content under its Marvel and ABC umbrellas, which may prove too intense for young minds. 

Discovery+

Discovery+ has recently added even more family-friendly entertainment to its repertoire. You can find fan favorites like the Food Networks Kids Baking Championship, Animal Planet’s Too Cute, and the Science Channel’s MythBusters. There is, however, more adult-centered content, and Discovery recommends that parents either supervise their children while watching or set up parental controls through the app. 

Cartoon Network 

Cartoon Network is home to animated classics like Tom and Jerry, The Powerpuff Girls, and Adventure Time, as well as new shows like DC Superhero Girls and We Baby Bears. During the day, most of the content stays pretty family-friendly, but parents should take care to monitor viewing or change the channel when the brand’s Adult Swim content comes on at 8 p.m. 

Nickelodeon

The content on Nickelodeon can skew a little more toward tweens and teens. Shows like Spongebob Squarepants, Monster High, and The Loud House are big hits among this age group but may occasionally feature content a little mature for younger kids. 

PBS Kids

As a public broadcasting station, PBS Kids keeps its content squeaky clean and family-friendly. Parents and kids can gather around for inventive shows like Kid Stew and Wild Kratts, as well as older episodes from shows like Arthur and Sesame Street.

How to Monitor What Your Kid is Watching

With all of the available streaming services, networks and channels, it's to find good content that's age appropriate. Bark helps save you time and takes the guesswork out of finding a fun family TV show by providing smart parental monitoring that allows you to observe, block, and control certain apps. Find out more about your options here.