Goins Family Backs Bark Phone After 1-Year Trial for 11-Year-Old
Updated
Updated · 69News WFMZ-TV · Aug 20
Goins Family Backs Bark Phone After 1-Year Trial for 11-Year-Old
2 articles · Updated · 69News WFMZ-TV · Aug 20
Summary
One year after giving Franklin Goins a Bark Phone at age 11, his family says the device has worked as a controlled bridge between a flip phone and a fully open smartphone.
Bark’s Samsung-based phone lets parents approve app downloads and scans texts for signs of violence, sexual content or bullying, giving Rachel Goins more oversight than a standard smartphone.
Alerts over the past year have not flagged anything serious, though the system has occasionally overread context—such as a message saying a football team “killed” another on the scoreboard.
Franklin called it a good starter phone for fifth- through eighth-graders and said it feels closer to the smartphones his friends use, with a camera he likes.
The family still plans to move him to an iPhone in eighth grade, with the Bark Phone then passing to his younger sister Violet.