The Best Parental Control App for Families

Bark is often considered the best parental control app on the market, thanks to its wide range of features, competitive cost, and emphasis on helping families bond. Bark's main features include app and website blocking, content monitoring, screen time management, and location tracking. But the parental control app doesn't just send you alerts when something is wrong — they also give you expert-recommended next steps for handling everything from suicidal ideation to pornography.

Learn more and start your free trial today at https://www.bark.us/.

Bark's app and website blocking, social media monitoring, and text monitoring all blow Qustodio out of the water. Compare each feature by visiting this page.

We believe Bark provides the most coverage of any parent monitoring app for iPhone and iOS devices! It’s also a great alternative to Apple Screen Time or Google Family Link because it lets parents get more granular with screen time limits and blocking.

If your kid has an iPhone or iPad, Bark lets you:

• Monitor texts and saved photos & videos
• Monitor 30+ social media platforms and apps
• Manage screen time
• Block websites and apps
• Track location in real time

Setting parental controls for iOS can feel daunting, but Bark is here to walk you through everything!

If you're just looking to manage your kid's screen time, you can do that by going to Settings —> Screen Time —> Set Up Screen Time for Family on your child's iPhone.

But if you're looking for comprehensive parental controls, Bark can provide content monitoring (you get alerted if your kid runs into predators, cyberbullying, sexual content, and more), app and website blocking, and location sharing — as well as more robust screen time management options! Start your free trial today and we'll walk you through how to get everything set up. To monitor their device, you'll need to have a computer or order a Bark Home.

Devices like Pixels, Galaxies, and Palms have limited built-in controls. Google Family Link provides a free set of parental controls. Bark is a more comprehensive parental control app for Android, but we'll go over that next.

Built-In Android Controls

Family Link 

To kick things off, download the free Family Link app onto your own device (Android or iPhone). If your child already has a Google account, Family Link will walk you through linking both of your accounts. 

Now, you can get started. Let’s go through what you can do:

View activity
Here you can see how much time they’ve spent on their favorite apps. It’s updated daily.

Manage screen time

You can set daily total limits for how much time they spend using their device, as well as when it gets locked for bedtime.

App limits and blocking

This is where you can set time limits for specific apps. You can also block them entirely.

Content restrictions

This category is kind of a catch-all, and you can manage all sorts of things — including blocked websites and app download approvals. Here’s where you can also turn on Google and YouTube Safe Search and Restricted Mode.

Location

When you toggle on this feature, you can see where your child and their device are on Google Maps.

Bark's Parental Controls for Android

Bark can help you set up content monitoring, website blocking, screen time management, and more on your child's Android devices. Here’s an overview of what all Bark can do.

Screen time

Bark has screen time features you won’t find anywhere else. From the dashboard, tap Screen time. 

Here, you’ll find our approach to creating a healthy balance centers on the idea that different times of day call for different screen time rules. 

For example, when your kids are in school, you can block access to everything but educational sites. 

At bedtime, you can only allow apps that help them wind down for the evening. And because all kids deserve to blow off a little steam, you can designate free time hours just for the fun stuff. 

Blocking

From the dashboard, tap Screen time again, then Rules, then Default rules. This is where our world-class web filter lets you select exactly which websites and apps your child can access on their devices. 

You can block specific sites — or even whole categories like streaming services, online gaming, sexual content, and more.

Content monitoring

From the dashboard, tap Monitoring. Here’s where you’ll connect your child’s device and accounts to Bark. 

Our advanced technology can then scan for potential dangers like bullying, online predators, depression, sexual content, and more.

If something concerning is found, Bark sends you an alert so you can check in and make sure everything is okay. 

Content monitoring not only helps keep your child safe, it gives you greater insight into their world and what it’s like to grow up in the digital age. 

Location alerts

Bark also helps you keep up with your kids no matter where they roam.

From the dashboard, tap Locations. Here, you can add frequently visited locations (like school, home, or a friend’s house). 

Whenever your child arrives at or leaves a spot, you’ll get an alert! No more opening up apps and zooming in on maps to check their location.

You can also request a check-in from your child whenever you need to get an exact update on where they are. 

We believe Bark's parental controls are hands-down the best option for parents! They let you receive alerts, manage screen time, block apps and websites, and more. Start your free, 7-day trial today to check Bark out.

Bark's Chromebook parental controls app can help you with all aspects of your kid's digital life. Our comprehensive protection includes three main online safety features.

To help you keep an eye on what's going on, we send parents and guardians alerts about potentially dangerous issues taking place on the devices their kids use. For example, if your child's friend is texting them about suicidal thoughts, we can let you know so you can step in and offer much-needed support. If your child encounters pornography online, we can alert you so you can have a candid chat about what healthy boundaries look like for your family.

We also give you the option to block specific websites and apps (like Snapchat) or entire categories (like social media). This kind of highly customizable blocking goes beyond what built-in Chrome parental controls let you manage.

Finally, we help you schedule digital downtime into your kid's day with our screen time feature. You can set rules for each part of your child's schedule. For example, you might decide to block Instagram while your kid is at school, or only allow meditation apps at bedtime.

Together, all of these features help give your child the boundaries they need to grow into an awesome online citizen.

With Bark's help, you sure can! Bark is the best iOS parental control app for managing your kid's iPad use. That might mean setting screen time limits (like no YouTube during school hours or no TikTok after bedtime), blocking websites with pornographic content, or receiving alerts if your kid's online activities include something like online predation or suicidal ideation.

Whatever you need to do to help protect your child's iPad, Bark can support you.