Many parents are familiar with Google Docs, Google’s online word processing app. It’s become a staple of the workplace — easily shareable, great for collaboration, and with a fool-proof autosave feature.

For these same reasons, Google Docs has also become popular in schools, with many children using it for schoolwork, homework assignments, and even group projects. But kids are incredibly inventive, and they’ve managed to turn Google Docs into a de facto communication and social media hub. Confused? We’ll break it down for you.

Chatting

When one person is typing in a Google Doc, it’s like a piece of paper. When you share it with a friend, however, it becomes one large text conversation. You can invite as many people to join the conversation as you want, and everyone can contribute in real time. How do kids tell who’s who? Little avatars in the corner show who else is viewing the document, with assigned profile colors that match that user’s cursor.

Kids have turned to chatting in Google Docs in class out of necessity. Schools often block stand-alone chatrooms and social media platforms with a firewall, and students know that websites for school work can’t be blocked. Classroom chats in Google Docs can then pick up right where they left off when kids get home. While parents may think their child is deep into a history paper, they may actually just be chatting with friends.

Bullying

A few weeks ago, we discussed how rampant cyberbullying is with today’s kids, and how it’s different from the schoolyard bullying parents may remember.

At Bark, we’ve seen more than 60,000 cases of kids ganging up on other children in Google Docs. They work in tandem to write mean or hurtful things in a shared Google Doc. In other cases, kids create private, digital “burn books” and invite others to contribute while leaving out the teased child.

A DIY social media platform

A blank Google Doc can also become more than just a chatroom. By adding images and embedding videos, kids can make it into a repository for jokes, memes, photos, and more. Kids can comment on images and text, and create jokes and stories filling page after page. Like Snapchat, kids can post images and then quickly delete them.

Electronic diaries

Google Docs can be accessed on any device that connects to the internet. Many kids use it as a diary; a convenient one that can be pulled up anywhere and anytime, whether on their phone, tablet, school Chromebook, or home desktop. But unlike traditional pen-and-paper diaries, these new electronic journals are entirely private, leave no paper trail, and don’t have to be hidden under the bed. Kids often pour their hearts into Google Docs, keeping hidden the signs of depression or anxiety they don’t share on social media or in texts and emails.

Whether your child uses Google Docs at school, at home, or both, Bark can help monitor what they’re getting into.

Bark for Schools provides free monitoring for student-issued accounts for K-12 schools in the U.S. Ask your child’s school if they’re currently using Bark — if not, direct them to bark.us/schools to learn more.

Bark for Families is $9 per month and monitors texts, emails, YouTube, and 24+ social media platforms. Sign up today for a free, one-week trial.

Monitoring what your child is getting into online can be scary and feel next to impossible. But what’s even more frightening is that one of the hottest trends in social media for the past few years has been disappearing messages — and it looks like they’re here to stay.

Whether you’ve been chasing phantom messages for years or your child is just beginning to express interest, in this post you’ll learn just what’s so frightening about them.

They don’t necessarily disappear

A common misconception about Snapchat and Instagram is that messages and photos disappear after a few seconds. This false belief can encourage risky behavior since kids perceive that what they send will vanish quickly – even when snapping with strangers. While it seems that things vanish shortly after viewed, there’s nothing to stop someone from taking a screenshot or a photo of the message with another phone.

Screenshots and videos create a permanent digital image. Teach your child to be careful about the images and texts they send. Nothing shared is ever guaranteed to remain truly private.

There are always new apps popping up

While Snapchat was the first app to make disappearing messages wildly popular, Instagram has since followed suit and implemented disappearing photos and videos in their direct messages and stories, as well. With 72% of teens regularly using it, Instagram has overtaken Snapchat as the most widely used social media platform, second only to YouTube.

Fortunately, most parents have heard of these two pillars of youth culture. But what many parents don’t realize is that there are countless copycat apps that ape the same functionality under different names. Be sure to research new apps that your child wants to download, and require parental approval before app downloads are allowed on their device.

They leave no record when it’s important

This may sound like a no-brainer given that it’s the very reason they exist, but when you stop to truly consider the ramifications of disappearing messages, it’s alarming.

We hope that your child doesn’t ever get involved with anything potentially harmful on Snapchat or Instagram, but in the event that they do, disappearing messages can erase all evidence of wrongdoing. Evidence is important in investigations, and without clear leads, family and friends can have trouble understanding what really happened.

Bark can help you make sense of the complicated world of disappearing messages and keep your child safer. Cyberbullying, harassment, threats of violence, and messages from online predators can all occur in these apps. Make sure your child knows about the dangers they pose.

Sign up today for your free, one-week trial and sleep a little easier knowing that Bark’s got your back.

I will never forget the night I had to first confront this reality. I was putting my 9-year-old son to bed, and had asked a simple question: “What is the most interesting thing you saw today?”

He hesitated for a moment and then said quietly, “Dad, did you know that Superman and Wonder Woman sometimes take off their clothes?”

It was an innocent statement from him, but I knew there was so, so much behind those words. He had been exposed to adult material online, and as a father, it broke my heart.

Pornography is everywhere

Whether we like it or not, children today will be exposed to pornography. It’s not a matter of if, but when. Preparing yourself now instead of waiting until it happens will help you get ahead of the situation.

What to do when you find out your child’s been exposed to pornography online.

1. Stay calm. How you react to finding out that your child has viewed porn will be remembered far more than the material itself. Have a conversation, not a shouting match.
2. Be supportive, not scolding. Your child is probably unsure of how they feel about what they just witnessed. They may feel ashamed, or they may be curious. Understanding where your child is in terms of this content is key. As a parent, you want to be able to see through your child’s eyes. Being supportive is the only way to do this.
3. Build trust while setting expectations. More than likely this is a journey and not a one-time experience. Let your child know how your family deals with this type of content. Fortunately, the relationship you have with your child is stronger than any content they’ve seen.
4. Keep asking questions. Continuing the conversation over weeks, months, and years will be the best thing you can do. Check in from time to time, and don’t shy away when the subject arises. This way, an awkward situation turns into an opportunity to strengthen communication with your child.
5. Put filtering and monitoring systems in place. Don’t just put your head in the sand. The same technology that causes problems can also create solutions. There are amazing tools out there that not only block content, but also let you know what your child is doing online. Put these in place now.

Our product helps parents monitor what their children are talking about online with their friends and posting across social media. With it, you receive alerts when potentially harmful or dangerous issues arise. We offer a free, one-week trial for interested parents.

About the author

Matt McKee is Vice President of Strategic Partnerships at Bark, and the author of Parent Chat: The Technology Talk for Every Family. He’s passionate about helping families navigate the world of technology, and enabling kids to thrive throughout a digital adolescence.

YouTube is the second most popular website in the world, and more than 400 hours of content are uploaded every minute. As the go-to hub for videos for nearly everyone on Earth, YouTube is home to incredible amounts of content — including content inappropriate for kids.

As YouTube’s popularity has grown, so too has its features and functionality. It can be hard to navigate it all, which is why we’ve compiled a list of reasons why families need a YouTube strategy when it comes to laying down ground rules. Some are things you may already know, but some may come as a surprise.

Blocking YouTube once isn’t enough.

Kids can access YouTube several different ways, including through browsers, the app, smart TVs, kindles, and iPads. It’s important to keep this in mind when you set restrictions: set them once, and set them everywhere.

Fake profiles can skirt age restrictions.

Older children will know the drill when it comes to YouTube restrictions, and may begin exploring ways to circumvent the rules. While YouTube might age-gate some videos and channels, tweens and teens can create fake profiles that state they’re older they they actually are, allowing them to watch YouTube with no restrictions.

The comments in YouTube can be incredibly toxic.

Like any public chat room, YouTube’s comment section is a minefield of potentially hazardous communications. The comments section can be home to abusive, bullying postings as well as sexual predators starting conversations with children. Users can leave comments about anything, including problematic messages featuring racism, sexism, homophobia, and more.

No sign in = no restricted content. Or does it?

Kids may think they can get around restrictions by simply logging out (and thus out of the restrictions you’ve made), but it’s not that easy. If a user is signed out of their account, YouTube will automatically block all content that requires age verification. Keep in mind, though, there are still plenty of questionable videos you wouldn’t want your children to see that YouTube doesn’t restrict.

Proxies can be used to bypass restrictions.

Another way older kids may try to work around YouTube restrictions is through proxies. A proxy is a tool that hides a user’s IP address, allowing them to bypass any set-up internet restrictions.

Want to learn more?

This is just a quick look into how incredibly expansive and complicated YouTube can be. Later this month, we’re going to publish an eBook, “The Ultimate Parents’ Guide to YouTube,” that will provide a comprehensive and detailed instruction manual for not only navigating and safeguarding your child as they use YouTube, but also for learning trends, recognizing dangers, discovering the basics of personal accounts, and more. If you’d like to be notified, fill out this form and you’ll receive an email when it’s ready!

Good news is coming to families who use iPhones and iPads! With the release of iOS 12 this fall, parents will soon have new tools to control how their children interact with and use their Apple devices. Parents will have the ability to set time limits and turn the phone “off” whenever they feel it’s necessary. While it’s not as feature rich as third-party products such as Boomerang, unGlue, and Circle, this is a great step for Apple to implement a native solution.

While previous versions of iOS had rudimentary, all-or-nothing parental controls, iOS 12 provides incredibly detailed and granular access, reflecting the varying needs of families with kids of all ages. Bark works seamlessly with this new update, providing a much-needed component of content analysis that is missing from most parental control options.

Easily accessible through Settings, “Screen Time” is the hub for all of the new ways you’ll be able to take control and help your kids learn to be responsible digital citizens. These controls will be a fantastic complement to the monitoring service that Bark provides when they are using their devices, enabling parents to stay on top of what’s happening in their children’s lives.

We’ve compiled a list of the 5 features that parents will love most about the new update:

1). You can control when your kids are online. Full stop.

Arguably the most powerful component of Screen Time, the Downtime settings enable parents to schedule blocks of time when the phone can’t be used, such as bedtime, dinner, or during homework. During Downtime, notifications won’t be displayed, and a special badge will appear on apps to indicate they can’t be used.  

There’s two options for Downtime. With regular Downtime, accessibility is drastically limited, with only approved apps being accessible. However, if you choose “Block at Downtime,” all apps and functions will be stopped, essentially turning the device into a paperweight.

2). Receive detailed reports on exactly how and when your kids use their devices.

This function is absolutely a game-changer for decoding your child’s relationship with their phone. Here, you’ll be able to get daily and weekly reports that will tell you:

• how many times they picked up their phone
• the number of notifications they receive
• the amount of time they spend in each app
• their longest stretch of use
• how long they use their phone at night

The first time you check your child’s report, you’re probably going to be a little surprised. Use this opportunity to talk with them and discuss any concerns that you may have.

3). Set custom time limits for different apps.

Once you learn from the custom reports where your kids are spending their time, you can then get to work and specifically manage and set limits for individual apps. When kids reach the limit of their 20 minutes of Instagram, for instance, they’ll then receive a notification telling them time’s up.

The beauty of the iOS 12 update is that it’s not all black and white. This feature also builds in some flexibility and parental discretion. You can enable the option for kids to request more time, which you can grant from your own iOS device. But don’t worry — there’s only one extra ask allowed, so they can’t keep nudging you until you give in.

4). Ensure certain apps will be Always Available

We know all apps aren’t created equal. That’s why this functionality can keep kids safe while also allowing them to access more productive apps, like the phone for emergencies and the calculator and ebooks for educational pursuits. Apps marked as Always Available will be available even during Downtime.

Apple marks Phone, Messages, FaceTime, and Maps as Always Available apps, but you can select any apps you like to be Always Available.

5). Decide which notifications kids can receive to their devices, and when.

The upgrades to the notifications in iOS 12 can help change the way your kids interact with their devices. You can even turn off notifications for some apps altogether. This is important because oftentimes it’s the notifications that keep kids opening and reopening apps.  The less bait, the less hooking.  You can also set an app’s notifications to Deliver Quietly — muting their sound and confining them to the Notification Center.

Thankfully, with this release Apple has prioritized making their existing parental controls much more accessible to parents in need of these features. We applaud Apple’s efforts to help parents keep children safer online and look forward to future initiatives from their family safety division.

If you have any questions about how to implement these features (or any other parenting/tech question), don’t hesitate to reach out to us. 

Want to Learn More?

Bark for Parents — Bark’s award-winning service proactively monitors your child’s text messages, emails, and social media and sends alerts at signs of danger.

Bark for Schools — We provide free monitoring for G Suite and Outlook 365 accounts for K-12 schools across the country.

Parenting in a Tech World — Join our Facebook community of more than 11,000 parents discussing kids, technology, and everything in between.

Kids today are growing up in a dizzying connected world of technology. Even if they’re not accessing the internet on smartphones, tablets, and laptops at home, they’re likely using them at school. A technology contract is a great way to collaborate with your family on rules around using devices and accessing the internet. It can help make sure the whole family is on the same page about how to get the most out of technology, and most importantly, stay safer online. You can download Bark’s Technology Contract here.

Here are a few tips for using a technology contract with your family.

Consider a technology contract as collateral for your child’s device

As more and more kids have access to connected devices, the pressure for parents to provide kids their own smartphones and tablets is heating up. But technology is a privilege, not a right. And in most cases, parents are the owners of their kids’ devices, not kids. It’s OK to remind your kids that you’re loaning them the device in good faith, and require a technology contract in exchange.

Set the ground rules

While the internet offers amazing possibilities, there are also many dangers that exist online. Here are a few points to consider.

• Depending on your child’s age, we recommend setting their password for any and all accounts they access and your child isn’t allowed to change them. If your child is older, you may want to consider letting them set their own passwords. With either approach, including a monitoring tool like Bark will provide an extra level of safety to their online activity.
• It’s your right as the parent to look through the device at any point to see which sites they visit and who they’re communicating with online.
• Make sure your child knows to never video chat with strangers, and that they’re not allowed to provide any personal information on any forum or website without your permission.
• For teens with a driver’s license, make sure you have a strict no-texting-while-driving rule in place. This is not only the law in many states and can result in costly fines, but it can also be deadly. Check out AT&T’s It Can Wait campaign. They’re raising awareness around distracted driving and encouraging teens to put their phones down while driving.
• Make it clear that there are consequences for disobeying the technology contract and rules. Consequences can include the loss of privileges associated with their device, losing access to the device for a set time period, or something else that makes sense for your family.
• Remind your child that you’re a team and in this together. Mistakes will happen, but you’re there to discuss it with them and learn together.

Discuss online etiquette

In addition to setting safety rules for your child, it’s also critical to help your child understand that there is basic etiquette for navigating the online world. For example, you could set rules about turning the device off in certain public places like restaurants or at the movies. Or, you could consider a rule where the whole family puts their devices away while having dinner together, or everybody leaves their devices in the kitchen to charge overnight while sleeping.

Your child may know how to be a good person in real life, but the anonymity of the internet can sometimes blur the lines, so it’s a good idea to spell it out clearly that they should never lie, fool, or hurt others online. Remind your child to be a good friend and never promote or share hurtful messaging by others. And, if your child is old enough to access social media sites, teach them the basics of privacy and if you’re using Bark, explain you’re monitoring their activity to ensure their safety, not to snoop.

Model the behavior you want your child to emulate

Children watch what the adults in their lives are doing, so be mindful of how you use technology around them. For example, a “no smartphone at the dinner table” rule should include adults, too. So set a good example and interact with technology with the same respect you expect from your child.  

The internet opens doors to amazing things for your child, and the conversation around responsibility, respect, and safety should be ongoing as technology continues to evolve. With a technology contract in place, everyone in the family can refer to it for clear expectations and actions. To make sure your child is using their smart devices safely, sign up for Bark and let our algorithms monitor their social media and alert you to any potentially harmful issues.