Bark Media Kit

What is Bark?

Bark is an award-winning monitoring and screen time management service founded in 2015 by a parent who was looking for a way to help keep his kids safe online while preserving their privacy. Bark covers 30+ of today’s most popular social media platforms, as well as texts, chat, email, YouTube, and files contained in Google Drive. Bark also monitors images, text within images, audio, and video and has recently added screen time management and web filtering to its suite of safety solutions.

Impact

Bark helps protect more than 5 million kids across the U.S. and has alerted parents to tens of millions of potential issues. In 2020, we analyzed more than 2.1 billion messages across texts, email, YouTube, and 30+ apps and social media platforms in our annual report. Noted findings include:

• 76.7% of tweens and 82.0% of teens experienced cyberbullying as a bully, victim, or witness.
• 45.5% of tweens and 66.3% of teens engaged in conversations about depression.
• 70.9% of tweens and 87.9% of teens encountered nudity or content of a sexual nature.
• 41.4% of tweens and 66.6% of teens were involved in a self-harm/suicidal situation.
• 78.0% of tweens and 91.1% of teens engaged in conversations surrounding drugs/alcohol.
• 88.5% of tweens and 94.1% of teens expressed or experienced violent subject matter/thoughts. 

To date, Bark has also helped prevent 16 school shootings and offers free content monitoring for more than 2,600 schools and districts nationwide.

Families and schools that use Bark have seen more family engagement in their children’s digital lives, deeper conversations around the dinner table, and ongoing dialogue about living in a tech world — all of which have led to healthier relationships between parents and kids, kids and their devices, and yes, even parents and their devices, too.

How does Bark’s technology work?

Our artificial intelligence does more than flag simple keywords. Bark’s algorithm analyzes language in context and is trained to recognize the ever-evolving nuances of kid, tween, and teen slang. Since launching in 2015, Bark’s mission has always been to help keep kids safe online, and that doesn’t end with detecting digital dangers. We’ve developed our systems with state-of-the-art security technologies, and we’re proud to report that we’re compliant with more privacy regulations than are legally required of us — and that we’ve never had a data breach of any kind.

Bark’s Coverage

Bark covers 30+ of today’s most popular social media platforms, as well as texts, chat, email, YouTube, and files contained in Google Drive. And because we know that kids communicate with more than just words, we also monitor images, text within images, audio, and video.

How Bark Started

Bark was founded by a parent looking for a way to help keep his kids safe online while preserving their privacy. When he discovered that no such tool existed, he created one himself. We understand that parenting with technology is hard — after all, we’re the first generation of parents to raise kids with smartphones. Because of this, everything we do is guided by our perspective as parents trying to help protect kids in the digital age.

How Bark Respects Kids’ Privacy

As kids, tweens, and teens grow into adults, we believe they need to learn how to live and thrive with technology — which is why we don’t give parents unfettered access to their kids’ online activities. Instead, Bark only alerts parents to potentially concerning situations. Kids can keep their privacy, and parents can save time by not having to scroll through every message. We also have strenuous safeguards in place to protect your family’s data. From our team of dedicated customer support specialists to the helpful advice and recommended actions from child health and wellness experts that accompany alerts, we provide parents with guidance, kindness, and peace of mind.

Leadership Team

Looking for a speaker or subject matter expert in the area of cyber safety, digital parenting, artificial intelligence as a protective measure, or trends in digital citizenship and cause-related technology? Our leadership team and advisory board is comprised of experts in the fields of technology, social justice, mental health, and internet safety. 

For interviews or media requests, contact Adina.Kalish@bark.us.