Bark Phone - Safest Phone for Kids & Teens - Monitor Texts, Social Media, and More - Tamper Proof Parental Controls - GPS Tracking - Unlimited Talk/Text A16

I bought this phone for my 10 year old son and I highly recommend it. I have to approve all his contacts, I can set limits, track him and get alerts if he does anything that seems suspicious or inappropriate. I feel safe with him using this.

Setup was fairly easy, the parental controls are excellent, and the real-time location tracking gives great peace of mind. My child loves having their own phone, and I love knowing they’re safe. Recommend for any parent considering a first phone.

Well thought out..integrates very well with an adults phone to police what apps are being used, approve contacts, send alerts of inappropriate conduct, and has GPS. Best of all can block all social media apps or allow them if you wish. I feel so much more comfortable with my child having a phone that they can grow into if maturity allows..love it!

I highly recommend the Bark Phone to any family looking for a safe, reliable, and easy-to-use smartphone for their child. My 8-year-old son absolutely loves it — and so do I! One of the best things about the Bark Phone is how simple and kid-friendly it is. My son can easily make calls, including to his grandparents who live overseas, and he even calls me when I’m at work just to say hi — which absolutely melts my heart! As a parent, I love how much control and peace of mind it gives me. I can monitor everything he’s doing, set screen time limits, block apps, and get alerts for anything concerning — all from my phone. It’s packed with built-in safety features without being overly complicated. The Bark Phone truly offers the perfect balance between freedom for kids and control for parents. It’s designed specifically with families in mind, and it shows. If you’re thinking about getting your child their first phone — this is the one. Trust me, it’s worth it!

We were looking for a first cell phone for our 11 year old and wanted one that looked like regular phones, but had a strong monitoring aspect. After months of research, we decided to go with a bark phone and couldn't be happier. The phone is the same Samsung A16 my husband and I have, so we know it's a great device. The real gem here is the Bark phone plan with monitoring. We chose to go with the lowest tier plan, which includes unlimited talk and text but no internet access. Talk and text is all we wanted for our child at this point. The plan also includes location monitoring and my child can take and send photos. We have the ability to upgrade the plan at any time, which is wonderful. I also love that in the future, when my child is much older, the Bark phone number can be transferred to another phone plan so my child can still keep their phone number. We had the option to buy the phone through the Bark website and pay for it monthly in addition to our phone plan, but chose to buy it outright from Bark through Amazon, which was what we had planned on doing. The phone was less than $250, which is incredible for a quality, name brand phone. Setting up the phone was extremely easy using the instructions included from Bark. The Parent app is great and I love that I get notifications on my phone and that I can update sensitivity settings, contacts, location services, etc on my phone. My one complaint that stopped me from giving a five star review is that my child was not supposed to receive calls or texts from unknown contacts, as the Bark programing only allows contact with approved contacts. This may have been a glitch, but for the first few days with the phone, we would get calls come through (we never answered them) from a local utility company, as well as texts alerting for automatic bill pay with a road toll company, electric company, etc. My understanding was that these were not supposed to come through as they were not listed as approved contacts. I blocked each text that came as well as the calls and made sure that I added the Bark ohine number to the No Call Registry, and we had no issues after the first 4 days. Again, may have been a glitch or maybe automated texts that come from five or six digit numbers aren't blocked, not certain. Overall, I would recommend this phone and the Bark phone service to anyone. I see us upgrading the phone plan in the future to allow for app and internet use, but it's not needed right now. We also plan to buy a second Bark phone in a few years for our second child when they are ready for a phone.

My daughter was getting to the age where having a phone was starting to be helpful. I wanted her to have freedom to grow without all the risk of social media and internet access. After quite a bit of research I decided to go with Bark and we have not been disappointed. Of course it takes a little work to set up and be engaged but it is totally worth it. I feel like it is a great balance of protecting her while also allowing her to learn how to navigate the waters.

We gifted this phone to our 10-year-old daughter for Christmas, and it has been a great fit for our family. She’s always using my phone to chat with out-of-town family or giving my number to friends at school — which, as you can imagine, was driving me a little crazy 😊. She’s also involved in sports, and there are times when she’s at a different field or schedule than our younger son. It’s reassuring to be able to call her or see where she is when needed. Since she’s only 10, we started with a texting-and-calling–only plan, and she was excited to have even that level of independence. So far, we haven’t had any issues, and we really appreciate having a product that allows us to stay informed and keep an eye on her phone use. I also like that we have the option to upgrade the plan as she gets older. Overall, it’s been a great experience.

We are very pleased with our purchase with Bark phones. It is an actual smart phone which was important to our teenager. We love that every app has to be approved and bark sends a rating with every app request. I highly appreciate that. Another plus for us is the ability to pause the phone during school hours or when screen time is not allowed. They can still make calls but no video games or anything else. One thing I do have to say is the location is not that great. It will tell us he is leaving home even if he is just going to the bathroom. That’s annoying and could use some updating. I would suggest downloading a different app for that. Overall we are very happy with the Bark phone