Child-monitoring apps face trust and safety questions

Digital safety has become a defining concern for parents as children face bullying, sextortion, counterfeit pills, predators and chatbot-related risks online. Beyond built-in phone controls and location-sharing services, content-monitoring apps now scan children’s texts, photos, emails and chats, then alert adults when algorithms detect categories such as sex, drugs, bullying or self-harm. Bark says it scanned 11 billion messages to or from 7.5 million children in the US in 2025, and its free school program operates in more than 3,700 districts.

Monitoring can surface genuine emergencies, including school-shooting threats and severe self-harm risks, but evidence across the market remains limited. Parents cited unreliable apps that disconnected, missed serious content or raised alarms over innocuous messages. Young people described feeling watched, losing privacy, being punished after false positives, having sensitive conversations exposed and carrying anxiety into adulthood. A 2025 audit found that nearly half the sideloaded monitoring apps reviewed were functionally indistinguishable from stalkerware.

Pam Wisniewski and other child-safety researchers favor designs that build resilience rather than rely on blanket surveillance. Their approach emphasizes self-regulation, risk coping and trusted support networks, along with stronger platform obligations such as duty-of-care rules. Experimental tools like Circle of Trust and MOSafely give teens more visibility and control over alerts, aiming to protect children without undermining the relationships that make them more likely to seek help.