The difficulty of cyberbullying has gained vital consideration lately because of the widespread use of the web and social media platforms particularly.
Cyberbullying is classically outlined as the usage of digital communication to bully, harass, or intimidate one other particular person. It could actually have extreme penalties for the sufferer’s psychological well being and well-being — and is usually even deadly.
Fortuitously, software program instruments at the moment are obtainable to assist fight cyberbullying, and probably the most well-liked is Bark.
What Is Bark?
Bark is a software program device that makes use of superior synthetic intelligence algorithms to watch and analyze the digital exercise of youngsters and youngsters. It’s designed to assist dad and mom and guardians hold their kids protected from on-line predators and cyberbullying. As soon as put in, the app can be utilized to handle and monitor their kids’s Apple iOS and Google Android units.
Bark screens a variety of digital platforms, together with social media, textual content messaging, and e mail, and it may alert dad and mom and guardians to potential points earlier than they develop into severe issues.
How Does Bark Work?
Bark makes use of superior machine studying algorithms to research the content material of digital messages and establish potential threats. The software program can analyze textual content, pictures, and movies and acknowledge patterns which will point out cyberbullying, threats of violence, or different harmful behaviors.
When Bark detects a possible difficulty, it sends an alert to the kid’s mother or father or guardian and a abstract of the content material that triggered the alert. The software program can even present steering on how one can deal with the state of affairs and counsel sources for additional assist.
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Given the huge recognition of smartphones and tablets, the cold-turkey strategy of banning kids from utilizing digital units is usually unsuccessful. Resentment is commonly a consequence — to not point out that many kids will use their ingenuity to get their arms on a digital machine.
The genius of Bark’s strategy is that it permits kids to proceed to make use of their digital units — significantly smartphones. Parental monitoring of a smartphone encourages kids to behave responsibly, earn belief, and alert dad and mom to potential cyberbullying-related issues earlier than tragedy strikes.
Bark Options
Bark has many options designed to assist dad and mom and guardians monitor their kids’s digital exercise and shield them from on-line risks. Among the most notable options embody:
- Monitoring a number of digital platforms: Bark screens a variety of digital platforms, together with social media, textual content messaging, and e mail. This facet implies that dad and mom and guardians can control their baby’s exercise throughout a number of platforms with out having to log into every platform individually.
- Customizable alerts: Dad and mom and guardians can customise the varieties of alerts they obtain from Bark primarily based on their baby’s age and the varieties of content material they wish to monitor. For instance, they’ll set alerts for cyberbullying, sexting, or violent threats.
- Clever evaluation: Bark makes use of superior synthetic intelligence algorithms to research the content material of digital messages and establish potential points. The software program can acknowledge patterns and establish doubtlessly harmful conditions earlier than they escalate.
- Help for a number of units: Bark could be put in on quite a few units, together with smartphones, tablets, and laptops, making it straightforward to watch a toddler’s digital exercise throughout all their units.
- Straightforward to make use of: Bark is straightforward to arrange and use, with a easy interface that permits dad and mom and guardians to view their baby’s digital exercise and obtain alerts.
Bark Advantages
Bark provides a number of advantages for fogeys and guardians involved about their kids’s on-line security.
In the beginning, Bark facilitates the early detection of potential points. Bark can establish potential points earlier than they develop into severe issues, permitting dad and mom and guardians to intervene early and forestall hurt.
Secondly, Bark gives a useful diploma of peace of thoughts to oldsters who want to control their kids inside and out of doors the house. This consolation manifests itself within the information that folks, caregivers, or guardians are taking steps to guard their kids from on-line risks.
As well as, Bark’s answer gives customizable alerts that permit dad and mom and guardians to personalize the varieties of alerts they obtain, to allow them to give attention to the precise varieties of content material that concern them. This functionality is essential as particular person kids have completely different maturity ranges, and it permits dad and mom to personalize the form of content material that children get entry to. The consequence is the chance to construct a extra substantial diploma of belief between mother or father and baby.
Since kids typically have entry to a number of linked units, Bark could be put in on quite a few merchandise, so dad and mom and guardians can monitor their baby’s exercise throughout all their units. It’s additionally useful that Bark is straightforward to arrange and use, with a easy interface that permits dad and mom and guardians to watch their baby’s digital exercise and obtain alerts. In different phrases, even technology-challenged dad and mom can use Bark and not using a sharp studying curve.
Partnership With Calix
Final yr, Calix introduced a strategic partnership with Bark. Calix is likely one of the main international suppliers of cloud and software program platforms, programs, and providers that broadband service suppliers (BSP) use to ship a unified entry community and the good house of tomorrow.
The Bark partnership is telling because it underscores Calix’s mutual concern about cyberbullying, as it’s the typical type of harassment confronted by teenagers and tweens. Calix has neatly added Bark to its rising system of premium system choices in its Calix Income EDGE Suites that BSPs can provide to broadband subscribers.
Through this partnership, Calix and Bark permit even the smallest BSPs, who typically don’t have the sources to implement capabilities like Bark by itself, to enlarge their worth proposition to the communities they function in. The result’s that BSPs are empowered to assist households shield kids at house, college, and just about anyplace on this planet.
In a current SmartTechCheck podcast, I had the chance to talk with Bark’s World CMO, Titania Jordan, and Megan Powell, Calix’s Director of Product Advertising, the place we mentioned the corporate’s partnership and dedication to sort out cyberbullying.
Closing Ideas
Cyberbullying is a severe difficulty that may have vital penalties for kids and youngsters. Fortuitously, software program instruments like Bark at the moment are obtainable to assist dad and mom and guardians tackle this drawback proactively and robustly.
The rise of the smartphone and its recognition with kids has created unprecedented challenges for fogeys. Bark studies that its answer has already coated 6.5 million kids, detected a staggering 1.1 million extreme self-harm conditions, and three million extreme bullying circumstances.
Calix has an extended and spectacular historical past with BSPs to make sure that kids’s on-line presence is safer. In reality, Calix was one of many first corporations to supply parental controls to BSPs in 2019 through its ExperienceIQ providing.
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The Calix/Bark/BSP dynamic’s enterprise implications additionally deserve point out. Calix’s DNA is characterised by its capacity to permit BSPs to handle, deploy, market, and function these kinds of premium providers in a resource-friendly method. The Bark factor amplifies Calix’s worth proposition with BSPs as a result of it accelerates time-to-market with wholly built-in turnkey options.
Cyberbullying could also be a Twenty first-century drawback which will by no means go away solely. Nonetheless, Bark and its partnership with Calix is a decisive step in the proper course that may assist dramatically mitigate this drawback.
Sadly, households are confronted with quite a few digital risks that threaten their kids on a 24/7 foundation. By combining forces, Calix and Bark have raised the bar — and expectation — on what accountable expertise corporations can and may do to guard our youngsters’s lives.