I'm sadly entering the phase of life where it was necessary to give my teenager a phone. I wanted to hold off till he turned 16 (driving age) but honestly, he's more responsible in *some* ways than his grandma (who lives with us) so when my wife and I are away, and with the long damn days I'm putting in between work and school now, I wanted a way to directly communicate with him to keep the lines open.
I was looking at just adding another line to our existing account, but then I found the Bark Phone and decided that was the solution - it gives us control over the content he's allowed to consume, the apps he's allowed to use, it monitors his activity for signs of depression / mental health issues / bullying (I believe as the recipient or perpetrator) etc. I've got the phone locked down just enough that he can't use the stuff that is obviously rife with pedos and creepers (facebook, insta, snap, Roblox, etc) while still giving him some freedom (YouTube, texting, calling, games that don't have the ability for pedos to reach out, etc) - and better yet its cheaper than adding yet another expensive damn phone to the plan + the line for service. I opted for a service plan that only allows internet over Wifi for him, but has unlimited calls / texts.
They use a built in VPN for privacy, and I've got controls on both my phone and desktop to tweak settings / approve actions / get alerts of concerning actions.
As he gets older, the reins will losen as he matures but for now I think this is a good solution. His friends in our neighborhood all have horror stories of groomers / pedos trying to get them to talk or send pix (boys and girls) and while the parents have deleted apps, they didn't have solid parental controls installed and the kids just re-downloaded the shit, or worse yet in one girls case, an aunt redownloaded shit and made a secret TikTok account for her and of course pedos were almost instantly in her DM's. I think dad just wound up taking the phone and then reaming the ass of the aunt that went behind his / his wife's back on that one. I don't need my kid getting perved on by Chester the Molester so I like this more secure setup.
The phone isn't exactly state of the art, but its not terrible either, the one they sent is a Samsung Galaxy A. Good enough for a 13 year old.
I was looking at just adding another line to our existing account, but then I found the Bark Phone and decided that was the solution - it gives us control over the content he's allowed to consume, the apps he's allowed to use, it monitors his activity for signs of depression / mental health issues / bullying (I believe as the recipient or perpetrator) etc. I've got the phone locked down just enough that he can't use the stuff that is obviously rife with pedos and creepers (facebook, insta, snap, Roblox, etc) while still giving him some freedom (YouTube, texting, calling, games that don't have the ability for pedos to reach out, etc) - and better yet its cheaper than adding yet another expensive damn phone to the plan + the line for service. I opted for a service plan that only allows internet over Wifi for him, but has unlimited calls / texts.
They use a built in VPN for privacy, and I've got controls on both my phone and desktop to tweak settings / approve actions / get alerts of concerning actions.
As he gets older, the reins will losen as he matures but for now I think this is a good solution. His friends in our neighborhood all have horror stories of groomers / pedos trying to get them to talk or send pix (boys and girls) and while the parents have deleted apps, they didn't have solid parental controls installed and the kids just re-downloaded the shit, or worse yet in one girls case, an aunt redownloaded shit and made a secret TikTok account for her and of course pedos were almost instantly in her DM's. I think dad just wound up taking the phone and then reaming the ass of the aunt that went behind his / his wife's back on that one. I don't need my kid getting perved on by Chester the Molester so I like this more secure setup.
The phone isn't exactly state of the art, but its not terrible either, the one they sent is a Samsung Galaxy A. Good enough for a 13 year old.
