Resources for families

Need help figuring out where to start with online safety? We’ve got you covered!

A phone with a location in maps pulled up, explicit content is implied by triple Xs over blurred images.

Kids Are Using Google and Apple Maps for More than Just Directions

Kids are now accessing porn and inappropriate content through apps you probably wouldn’t think twice ...

mom and daughter on their phones, android home screen in the background

3 Reasons Why Cell Phone Parental Controls Are a Must

As soon as your child reaches that technology milestone of getting their very own phone, ...

three teens looking a smartphone together

Transforming Digital Health Into an Essential Part of Therapy with the Bark Phone

Since its founding, Bark has been singularly focused on helping to keep kids safe online ...

mom taking tablet away from child

Helping Your Child Through Screen Time Addiction

The battle over screen time is a common struggle for tons of families, but for ...

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Talking to Kids About Online Safety: How to Prevent Trafficking Risks

January is Human Trafficking Awareness Month, and while it can be a hard topic to ...

A mom hugging her distressed daughter, who's looking at a phone. The side-eye emoji and the words "AI" are added to the image around them.

Everything Parents Need to Know About Nudify AI Apps 

A new threat students face today is in the form of AI-generated “nudify” apps. Teens ...

Bark’s 2024 End-of-Year Review

2024 marked our 9th year as a company here at Bark, and we had tons ...

5 Simple Tech Tips Your Family Can Do in the New Year

We’ve all experienced having a New Year’s resolution that we were really excited about, only ...

Is TikTok Shop Safe for Kids?

Move over, Amazon  — kids are shopping on TikTok. Why? Because TikTok knows kids spend ...

"Ask Titania; How do I protect all my kid's new devices they got over the holidays?" over a green background

Ask Titania: How Do I Protect All My Kid’s New Devices They Got Over the Holidays?

Dear Titania, My 9-year-old daughter had a wonderful holiday season, and received not only an ...

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What Bark Monitors: A Crash Course for Parents

Bark is the one of the only parental monitoring apps of its kind, thanks to ...

teen boy stretching neck

How to Fix and Prevent Tech Neck in Your Teen

Remember in the ‘90s when it seemed like cases of carpal tunnel syndrome skyrocketed in ...

5 Reasons the Bark Watch for Kids is a Great First Step Into Tech

For years, a common debate for families has been “when to give your child their ...

A kid sitting on a couch, holding remote, and looking down at phone. Triple X and side eye graphics added.

Your Kid Accidentally Saw Explicit Content Online — Now What?

As a parent, you’ve probably invested a lot of time in helping to shield your ...

kids camping indoors

8 Indoor Winter Activities for Kids to Limit Screen Time

The winter season brings so many fun things to look forward to, like the possibility ...

5 Tips for Setting up Your Kid’s New Bark Watch

If you’re the proud parent of a new Bark Watch kid, congratulations! You’ve made a ...

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3 Gratitude Activities to Celebrate the Holidays with Your Family

When the holiday season comes around, our days can be filled with holiday shopping, cooking, ...

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A Parent’s Guide to Nintendo Switch Games

If there’s one gaming console that seems to be at the top of tons of ...

two teen girls looking at a smartphone, speech bubbles with popular slang words

Decoding Teen Slang: 10 Words Parents Should Know But Never Use

Need to update your rizz factor a little bit? Good. Because this post is all ...

The words "Ask Titania; How do I manage my kid's screen time during the holidays?" over a blue background.

Ask Titania: How Do I Manage My Kid’s Screen Time During the Holidays?

Dear Titania, The holidays are fast approaching, and I’d love some advice on how to ...

bark logo surrounded by holiday gift illustrations

Know Before You Buy: Bark’s 2024 Holiday Tech Gift Guide

When the holidays roll around, tons of kids will be asking for the latest gadgets ...

How to Teach Your Kid to Spot a Scam

Despite kids being way more tech-savvy than us nowadays, they’re sadly not immune to tricky ...

illustrated X with popular app logos around it

5 Unexpected Places Your Kid Might Encounter Porn Online

Porn — you can find it on the internet in a matter of seconds, and as ...

parent on phone with illustrated cancel emoji

4 Ways to Model Healthy Screen Time 

I hate to break it to you, Mom and Dad, but your kids are probably ...

kid wearing a smart watch

Coming Soon: The First-Ever Bark Kid’s Smart Watch

You may have heard the news: We’re making a Bark Watch! After talking with countless ...

movie posters for Fantastic Mr. Fox, Hocus Pocus, Charlie Brown, Coco, and Matilda

Our Top Picks for Fall Family Movies

Picture it: It’s a cool October evening and a pot of delicous chili is simmering ...

kid holding halloween candy basket

5 Halloween Safety Tips for this Spooky Season 

When spooky season is around the corner, there’s lots to be excited about! Ghostly decorations, ...

How Do I Know If My Kids Are Safe Online at Home?

Dear Titania, I have three kids, and for our house we’ve got a Bark Phone ...

bark logo depicted as McGruff the crime dog

Remember McGruff the Crime Dog? He’s Back for More Crime Prevention

Does the phrase “Take a bite out of crime!” trigger long-dormant memories in you? If ...

illustrated child with flowers around head

Celebrating the Wins for World Mental Health Day 2024

It’s not hard to see the real challenges teens face with mental health today. Looking ...

headphones

What Is ASMR and Why Are Kids Obsessed With It?

ASMR may be the most popular phenomena you’ve never heard of — we’re serious! It has ...

Father and daughter with their arms around each other, smiling at each other. Emojis around them.

5 School Year Tips for Parents in 2024: How to Help Your Child Thrive

Whether your children have just started back in the classroom, are nearing the end of ...

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What Cyberbullying Looks Like in 2024

Cyberbullying is so common now that we might as well call it “bullying.” More and ...

teen girl on her phone with illustrated emojis around her phone

How to Deal With FOMO in Kids

FOMO — or fear of missing out — starts early in kids, as you might remember. It’s ...

kids playing chess with parents

5 Ways to Celebrate National Family Day

Calling all kids, parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and pets! National Family Day, designated for the ...

"Ask Titania; Are the new Instagram parental controls any good?"

Ask Titania: Are the New Instagram Parental Controls Any Good?

Dear Titania, This week, I read about Instagram’s new parental controls. I wanted to know ...

black background with the words "Childhood 2.0, the living experiment"

A Parent’s Guide to Childhood 2.0 

At Bark, we consider one of our most important jobs to be educating parents and ...

apple logo with number 18

An iOS 18 Update Guide for Families

iOS 18 launches today, and Apple has once again shown the world that their devices ...

app logos: discord, spotify, apple, telegram, roblox, reddit

What Parents Need to Know About the 2024 Dirty Dozen List

Every year, the National Center on Sexual Exploitation releases its Dirty Dozen list, which calls ...

teen girl, illustrated rain cloud

World Suicide Prevention Day 2024: Changing the Narrative on Suicide

September 10 is dedicated as World Suicide Prevention Day, an important day dedicated to suicide ...

Mom and daughter looking at a phone together with emojis around them

Should You Read Your Child’s Texts? The Pros and Cons

For many parents today, one of the most divisive questions in digital parenting is whether ...

teen in the driver's seat of a car

Driving Safety Tips: How Parents Can Support Their Teen Driver

Parents know there seems to be an endless list of things you want to teach ...

mom on her phone, next to two children

Monitoring Your Child’s Phone? Here’s What You Need to Know

Before the age of smartphones, chat rooms, and social media, parents didn’t have to figure ...

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Removing Social Media Access After Granting It: A Parent’s Guide

This is an all-too-common scenario these days: You allow your teenager access to a few ...

"988 suicide and crisis hotline" with blue background

What Parents Need to Know About 988

Many parents may not know that suicide is currently the second-leading cause of death for ...

girl on smartphone, illustrated screen time meter

How to Limit Screen Time on an Android Device

Curious about how to limit screen time on your child’s Android? Aside from the old-school ...

What Do I Need to Know About YouTube to Help Protect My Kid?

**This blog post was updated on September 19, 2024.** Dear Titania,  As my 6-year-old gets ...

kids on a tablet, with Snapchat, TikTok, and Instagram logo illustrated

3 Reasons Why Family Center Parental Controls Are Not Enough

Right now, we’re in a pivotal time where tech companies are receiving more and more ...

mom and daughter with school emojis around them

Conquer Back-to-School Anxiety with Our 10 Tried & True Parenting Hacks

If May-hem is the month where everything end-of-school comes down at all once, then Aug-stress ...

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7 Teen Movies That Would Be Very Different If They Had Bark

Parenting in 2024 is definitely challenging, but raising kids before cell phones and the internet ...

illustrated speech bubbles

5 Questions with Mike Arterburn About Sextortion, Kids, and Online Safety

Sextortion is a serious issue facing kids, but many parents may not be familiar with ...

boy with headphones looking at phone

Parenting in a Digital Age When Your Kid is More Tech Savvy Than You

The amount of technology kids are born into today is truly mind-boggling — for our generation, ...

parent and child laughing together, illustrated emojis around them

7 Ways to Build Trust With Your Child

Among all the responsibilities parents have, one of the most important ones is building a ...

Ask Titania; Are there any safe ways for kids to listen to music online?

Are There Any Safe Ways for Kids to Listen to Music Online?

Dear Titania, My family uses Spotify, and our 11-year-old just told me that kids at ...

notification to block account on an illustrated phone with app logos around it

Blocking and Reporting on Social Media: What Parents Need to Know

At Bark, we’re pretty vocal about the inadequate parental controls and safety features social media ...

girl holding phone with a red cross-out over the phone

What Would Banning Cellphones in Schools Actually Look Like?

Every day, more and more schools and districts are announcing they’re banning cellphones in K–12 ...

illustrated magnifying glass with the word "seggsy" in it

Algospeak: The Words Teens Use to Outsmart Social Media Moderation

Do you ever remember hearing older generations talk about a club in a college town ...

Bark Turns 9: Nine Employees on What Makes Bark Special

This week, Bark turned 9 years old — we’re almost to double-digits! It’s been an ...

illustrated image of text conversation on smartphone

How to Monitor Kids’ Text Messages

If you find yourself Googling how to monitor your kid’s text messages, you’re definitely not ...

Why Do I Feel Like the Only Parent Monitoring Their Kid’s Phone?

Dear Titania, My 14-year-old has an Android, and we monitor it with Bark. He’s fine ...

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Bark helps families manage and protect their children’s digital lives.

mother and daughter discussing Bark Parental Controls

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