TOTAL: 93/100

The PureWow100 is a scale our editors use to vet new products and services, so you know what's worth the spend—and what's total hype. Learn more about our process here.

If your kid is like mine and doesn’t already have a smartphone, you know what it’s like to be nagged 24/7 for you to get them a device. My 6^th grader claimed they were the “only one” at middle school without a mode of digital communication—not true, the teachers said, but still the point remained: many classmates already had a phone last year in 5^th grade. Still, we knew that handing our already distracted, tech-loving child a screen to be obsessed with at all times was a bad idea, and something we were just not ready for. In fact, I went so far as to sign the Wait Until 8^th pledge to delay getting a smartphone until at least 8^th grade.

And yet…there have been many occasions where it would have been not only nice but safer to be able to get in touch. After all, our kid enjoys the freedom to ride a bike around our neighborhood and is trusted to go to activities and friends’ houses without us present. When a fellow mom told me that a friend of hers got the Bark Phone for her child for the purpose of getting in touch, I was intrigued.

After learning more about Bark on their website, my husband and I agreed we were ready to try it out as a family. Here's our experience using the device, as well as that of PureWow's vice president of editorial content, Candace Davison, so you can decide whether it's right for your family.

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