As a parent of a Generation Alpha child, I knew the time would soon come to decide if he needed a phone. and you may not be happy with your final device purchase.
So, over the past few months, I’ve tried as many kid phones as possible, but I’ve decided, at least on the Android side, to have one phone to rule them all. Bark Phone. It’s the perfect combination for a child’s phone that’s too invasive or too loose, and works great with the included case.
But while the Bark Phone was my favorite of all the phones I tested, the other two were also winners for another reason. The Troomi phone is perfect for parents with young children who don’t want to browse social media or the Google Play Store. Meanwhile, Teracube Thrive offers light-touch parental controls for kids who don’t want too many restrictions.
Burke makes the most sense when it comes to me and my family. Here’s why:
Control as much as you need
For me, the Bark Phone struck a nice balance between being too restrictive and not being restrictive enough. I’m impressed that Troomi gave him his Android phone without the Google Play store, but his son mainly wants to play games on his phone and communicate with his I rarely used it as a device. It was a little too restrictive for my tastes, but if all you want is a communication device, you’ll find this to be an ideal choice.
Conversely, Teracube Thrive primarily uses Google’s own Parental Link software built into Android. As such, it is compatible with Play Store and Android’s built-in screen time limits and location tracking features, but lacks deeper parental control tools such as contact management, message control, and other important features like that. not supported.
Bark protects the privacy of your child’s messages and browsing history, but also alerts parents if something might be wrong.
One of the first things I liked about the Bark phone was the web browser, which had a built-in content filter, but didn’t let me openly browse my child’s internet history unless a problem was detected. Given the incredibly detailed range of filters, you can apply everything from obvious things like violence and pornography to less obvious issues like self-harm and bullying.
Similarly, these same content filters can be applied system-wide. So even messaging apps are filtered for content. Don’t want your child to see or use swear words? There is a filter for that. Want to be notified when Bark detects something that sounds like bullying on social media?
Just like your internet history, Bark won’t let you read all of your kids’ text messages unless it detects a problem. This is great for kids who can feel more private when talking to their friends, but it also gives parents an important piece of knowledge should things go wrong.
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You’ll also get a weekly summary of how much your child is using the apps installed on their phone, links to parental dashboards, helpful tips and tricks, and fun stats to dig deeper.
Speaking of apps, you can easily monitor and restrict the apps your kids are using on their Bark phone. All kids phones do this well, so this doesn’t necessarily mean Burke is better than others, but my son prompts my phone when he wants to install something new. It’s good to see the tot. Then look at the app or game and approve or decline the request. For example, if he’s at a friend’s house when the request comes in, it includes an easy way to chat about it.
All the filtering and tools are great, but I’ve yet to find a kid’s phone that does a good job of blocking ads.
That said, the Bark Phone isn’t perfect and needs one major improvement from my point of view. All internet traffic on your phone is routed through Bark VPN, but there is no way to block ads or traffic from advertising companies.
This is a huge mistake on Bark’s part, but they’re not alone in this problem.I am using a firewall (opens in new tab) I use Blue in my home to remove harmful ads from sources like TikTok and other particularly bad companies, but it still misses the mark sometimes.
We expect Bark to implement some kind of ad blocking system-wide with this VPN. Want to add extra filtering for these scary ads?
great beginner phone
The Bark Phone is basically a custom-tailored Samsung Galaxy A13 and one of the best budget phones out there. (opens in new tab) You can buy it. It has a surprisingly good camera and display, and his Qualcomm processor inside is more than enough to run apps and lots of games. Unless the graphics in those games are too complex.
From there I start having problems with my Bark Phone, Teracube Thrive and Troomi phone. all I use Samsung Galaxy A13. Again, it’s an affordable phone that’s very ideal for kids, but not good enough for older kids and teens who want something a little more powerful.
Bark Phone is just a Galaxy A13 with a custom OS, but you can load the Bark app on almost any Android or iPhone.
That’s where the Bark app comes in. Bark Phone is a completely self-sufficient ecosystem with its own cell provider, but the Bark app can be installed on any supported Android or iPhone and offers the same great parental controls as Bark Phone. increase. The difference here is that if you give Junior an old phone and drop his Bark app on it, you can save some money each month because the cost doesn’t include the phone bill.
That also means you can add them to your existing phone plan. This might be a little cheaper per month than what Bark offers. This might be a good way for families with multiple children to use an older child as a guinea pig to give Bark a shot .
Again, I can totally recommend both the Troomi and the Teracube Thrive to parents looking for something a little less restrictive, depending on parenting style, the age of the child, and of course the child’s personality. Children are naturally troublemakers and need to be kept on a shorter leash.
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Ready to give your child a phone? Get a Samsung Galaxy A13, Bark phone powered by Android and powered by the custom Bark OS that gives you all the parental controls you need.
