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- [00:00]
A
Back to school means backpacks, new teachers, and for a lot of families, a school issued laptop or Chromebook coming home for the first time. So today we're digging into what's actually happening on those devices using real alert data from Bark for Schools and talking about the free resources available to families and districts, including our Connected Communities program and the Tech Safe Learning Coalition. We'll also get into the question that more and more parents are asking every year. Is opting out of school tech even possible? And what does that look like in practice? So if your kid's heading back to a classroom with a device, potentially coming home, this one's for you.
- [00:52]
B
All right, so one of the things that I love telling people about BARK when I'm explaining what I do or just what we do, is that Bark for Schools got started after the Parkland shooting as kind of like our community Give Back program. And now we're in over 3,700 districts across the country, which is so cool to be able to say, you know, can you kind of walk us through that origin story? I was not here then.
- [01:18]
A
Which is wild. I feel like you've been here since the beginning.
- [01:21]
B
It feels that way. And how the mission has sort of evolved since we first started the Bart for Schools initiative.
- [01:28]
A
Sure, yeah. So we had done a pilot with some schools in the fall of 2017, I believe, and we were pretty blown away by what that pilot found in terms of bad things happening on school issued devices. Suicide notes, suicidal ideation, sharing of graphic, explicit content, and very credible school shooting and bomb threats. Then Parkland happened and we were like, this needs to roll out a pilot. This needs to be available for every school in the nation. And we can't charge for this. This needs to be free. And so we decided to just make a little announcement on our little social media and email list and that blew up. Blew up. Like, I didn't know that listservs were still a thing, but they are like, especially like we were sitting there looking at all these people coming in from Arkansas and we were like, why are we such a big deal in Arkansas right now? And apparently some IT director in Arkansas shared this on this listserv of IT directors in Arkansas. It was just like bullshit.
- [02:49]
B
Just exploded. Yeah.
- [02:50]
A
So, yeah. And it's been amazing what we have been able to discern. It's been so meaningful. The children we've been able to help protect and the overwhelmed IT directors and administrators who, outside of teaching and helping children to grow emotionally and educationally. And in some private schools, spiritually, they were now having to deal with the issues that were happening on the parent issue tech that were bringing themselves to the school. Right. Bullying, sexting, mental health comparison. But they were not well equipped for what unprotected tech for the purported sake of. Of helping our children go further, faster brought.
- [03:47]
B
Right.
- [03:48]
A
And now we are seeing a lot of data, a lot of research showing things like this generation is the first generation in the history, I think of us kids who has reverted in IQ scores. Like they are dumber. Wow. And what changed? Tech, right? Yeah. Yeah. So potentially we might need to go back to more handwriting and reading of books instead of on e readers. And you know, like, I love tech, obviously, but we have to pay attention to the data.
- [04:21]
B
Yep. It's actually funny as an aside, I was watching a TikTok the other day and it was a guy.
- [04:28]
A
Yes, exactly. I was on social media.
- [04:29]
B
Yes, Shocker. And it was a guy who, his girlfriend had written a post it note of like what they needed from the grocery store and she had to write it in regular handwriting cause she typically writes in cursive and he didn't know how to read cursive.
- [04:42]
A
Oh, wow.
- [04:43]
B
And I was like, that's like. I remember being so annoyed having to learn cursive and write. One of my English teachers in middle school, everything we did had to be done in cursive.
- [04:53]
A
Oh yeah.
- [04:54]
B
And I just didn't even think about that being a thing that's not done anymore. And my mom and my grandma have always written in cursive, so I've always read their cursive. But again, it's the that we've moved to screens for everything. I mean, I even just got my own Kindle for the first time. I love reading a paper book, but I was like, I'll give it a try. And I like it, but it's definitely not the same.
- [05:18]
A
Yeah, I'm struggling with that too. The digital and the physical. My purses over the years have gotten smaller and smaller and smaller. Right. And so I don't always have the right pen and the right journal with me, but it's so much better for me to write things down, but that is harder to keep track of. So whether it's to do list on sticky notes or in the reminders app, or my thoughts in a running document, I have called thoughts or in a physical journal, I don't know. But I do know for kids, we have given them way too much tech. And in schools and it's okay to realize you've made a mistake and walk it back, but the people who are staunchly fighting to keep our kids in front of screens for hours a day need a wake up call.
- [06:19]
B
Yeah, 1,000%. Things that might wake parents up to the things that are happening on these school issued devices. We do our annual report every year and that's just on family devices. That doesn't include school issued devices. But we actually had a request come through from a prominent journalist requesting specifically to know what's Bark finding on school issued devices.
- [06:42]
A
Yes. Tell me what we found on just school issued devices. And this is, this helps make it real. Right. When you know the rate at which harms are happening to children while they're either at school or using school tech, you start to become aware of like they didn't have these dangers when they were just reading a science textbook or doing physical homework.
- [07:05]
B
Right.
- [07:06]
A
So is the risk worth the risk or is the exposure worth. It's an opportunity cost thing. Yeah, yeah. So cyberbullying. 12% of children in the nation with which we have access to their school issue devices and accounts experience cyberbullying. And this is children as young as, I'd say first grade.
- [07:29]
B
Yeah. They're getting the devices younger and younger in school.
- [07:32]
A
1st through 12th grade, y'. All. Depression, almost 4%. Suicide, almost 8%. That's like suicidal ideation. Children writing suicide notes in Google Docs. Children being able to watch pro suicide content on streaming on school issue devices and accounts. Drug related conversations 23%. Almost. Sexual content almost 11%. Hate speech, almost 3%. Medically concerning content, almost 12%. Body image issues 0.23% and anxiety, almost 2%. So when you think of those as percentages, they all sound kind of low. You know, the violence one is the highest listed here. But when you think of those in terms of absolute numbers, how many children. Yeah, because even one child is too much.
- [08:26]
B
Right. Like we said, we're in over 3,700 school districts. So you think about how many students are in just one district alone.
- [08:33]
A
Right. And we also broke it down state by state too. Different states have different issues bubbling to the top. And for the state of Georgia, where we're recording right now, I mean, sexual content was at almost 85%. That's not. Unless you're in sex ed or biology class, you know, that shouldn't be a factor. And Bark doesn't send alerts when you're just learning about the sperm and the egg. Right. So this is like actual inappropriate content, not meant for children.
- [09:09]
B
Right. I think the other number that stands out for Georgia specific Data is over 50% of those alerts were sent for risky contact. So things like talking to a predator on whatever platform they might be using, that's messed up. It's just crazy to think that. I think the. The unfortunate assumption is that your school hands your child a device and you just kind of assume like, it's protected, it's good. And that's just not the case. And that's not necessarily to the school's fault. It's that they've got a million things they're trying to do and work they're trying to teach your kids. That's the first job they have.
- [09:49]
A
Education.
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B
Yes.
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A
They are not meant to be law enforcement.
- [09:53]
B
Right.
- [09:54]
A
And it's one thing when you have a school and you have children on a playground and the children are inside the playground and a white van drives along outside the playground. Right. Every teacher can be like, yeah, not today. Right. But you just can't do that on a device unless you have bark, have filters, have the right IT director in place, and maybe just don't give the kids tech until they're a little bit older.
- [10:17]
B
Yeah, exactly. So kind of a nice segue here is a lot of it comes down to education. Whether that's education for the teachers, the parents, or the students themselves. Which is why I love that we've rolled out our Connected Communities program. So what is it for those of our listeners who haven't heard of it? What does it kind of look like? And what's our end goal with, you know, the Connected Communities program?
- [10:46]
A
Yeah, so Connected Communities, great idea. Shout out to our CEO, Brian Basin, and our chief commercial officer, Christian. And Brian and Christian are both dads. Right. They are in the thick of it, and they came together and really thought through. We already have this footprint, right. We have this massive footprint with schools, and we are in direct contact with the teachers, the administrators, the counselors, the parents. But where we're not making an impact yet is directly to the children. And that's arguably where we can have the greatest impact, is if they can be educated and empowered, if we can help them understand the risks of the digital landscape in a way where they won't tune out. Right. Sometimes a kid just needs to hear really important advice from somebody who's not their parent for them to pay attention. And so, yeah, we launched the Connected Communities program. It's currently free for any school in the nation. We will come to your school community, educate the educators, educate the parents, and educate specifically the fourth and fifth graders. We'll bring bark phones and show them, like, modules which don't tell your kid they're going to have a module that's not exciting, but for the adults listening, it's a module. You learn. Two of our amazing team members, Adam and Katie, are usually the ones that go out and do it. But we have a whole team that will do it. And yeah, they just. And the kids love it. They love it. Cause they're already. That's their world. Right. And there is no, really, there's no class at school right now where you can talk about Riz and Cheugy and Bro and emojis and like that person that seemed a little weird on Roblox and when people are really mean to you in a text thread and how it feels like there's no standardized curriculum for that across the nation. And so we've been doing it and people love it and children's lives are being changed and the conversations that it opens up between parent and child. You know, when your child comes home from school and they're like. You're like, what'd you learn today? And they're like, oh, I learned that actually Discord and Roblox have some dangers on there, you know, I didn't know about. Like, that's a beautiful conversation you can have without friction.
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B
I love it.
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A
Yeah.
- [13:22]
B
I was thinking for some reason back on, like, when I was in middle school, high school, I can't remember, and like, my extent of computer class was like typing and it was like words per minute, like, how many.
- [13:33]
A
Keyboarding.
- [13:34]
B
Yes.
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A
Keyboarding class. Oh, my gosh.
- [13:36]
B
And I loved it. But, like, that was the extent of what I was learning about tech. And it. It really is just such a different world. To your point, this is what they eat, sleep and breathe. It's their phone or their computer, whatever their devices that they have. And so the fact that we can get in there and kind of meet them where they're at in a non, like, boring way where they're just like, whatever, I'm not gonna listen to you. I think is really, really awesome. And I agree. Adam and Katie both, I think their ability to connect with the kids, I mean, it's amazing.
- [14:10]
A
Yes. They are so relatable and, like, captivating. They're great public speakers and I enjoy hearing them speak, learning from them. If I were in fifth grade or fourth grade, I'd be like, these people are awesome. Yes. And like, this is a class I'm actually excited to attend.
- [14:27]
B
Yes.
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A
You know?
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B
Yeah.
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A
So, yeah, I did not love keyboarding class because we weren't allowed to look at our Computer, you know, do you remember the, the anxiety of like, I got so mad. But what I did love computer science class where we got to like program things. And I loved. I don't even know what it was, but we got to play Oregon Trail.
- [14:48]
B
Yes, I remember.
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A
And I was very happy about it. I don't know what they're trying to teach us, but I loved it.
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B
Hey, you know what? Make learning fun.
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A
Taught us to never ever take a
- [14:58]
B
wagon across the country. Yes, exactly. That's what I learned.
- [15:03]
A
I love it.
- [15:04]
B
Another resource that we're big fans of at Bark is the Tech Safe Learning Coalition. Tell me a little bit about it. I know that you're a big fan of them as well.
- [15:15]
A
I am. So it was founded by Rose Bronstein, friend of Bark, friend of mine, friend of the show, who lost her son Nate Bronstein to bullying happening through the Latin School of Chicago, I believe. And despite Nate filing a documented report to the school's administration, nothing was done to stop the abuse. We will forever keep Nate, who's forever 15, and the Bronstein family in our hearts. And then it was also co founded by Nikki Petrossi, our friend, guest of the show. We've been a guest on her show, the very popular Scrolling to Death podcast. And those two women are powerhouses. And they are standing up for parents and children across the nation who have been harmed by school issued tech who they're helping to support. Parents who know in their gut, like, hey, for whatever reason, no offense to the school, our kids aren't being properly protected on these things. We know they're looking at porn, we know they're watching YouTube videos that aren't educational and we want to opt out. This website, techsafelearning.org gives you the power, the templates, the emails you can copy and paste to the decision makers to be like, this is not okay and advocate for your child because it's not okay. And again, tech is amazing, but we have to dial it back. We have to go about it a different way and we have to understand how it got to be where it was, right? Like there are these major companies. There's nothing wrong with capitalism and companies generating profit. Bark is a for profit. But when companies like Google and Lenovo and Apple see a revenue channel in schools, they're gonna do everything they can do to hit those sales goals. And I think a lot of us were sold a lie about our children being able to keep up when they weren't ready. And it wasn't done in the right, most developmentally Appropriate way. Right.
- [17:36]
B
On the note of opting out, that's a growing parent movement. So outside of leveraging tools like Tech Safe Learning Coalition, you know, what other advice would you give to parents who are really thinking about like, I just want to opt out of this, but I don't know what to do, how do I opt out?
- [17:58]
A
Sure. So if you go to techsafelearning.org and click on Resources, there's guides and templates, recommended content, and there's legal assistance. If you are not getting anywhere with, you know, emails and meetings, there's the EdTech Law center and they give legal assistance to you to help with school. Let's see. The EdTech Law center works to hold education technology companies legally accountable for the harm they inflict on students and their families. So might need to get legal involved.
- [18:31]
B
Yeah.
- [18:32]
A
Because again, like your duty as a parent is to protect your child's physical and mental well being.
- [18:40]
B
Yeah. Point blank, period, Period. So yeah, there's so many things we could tell parents as they prep for back to school season, which is here. But if you could give maybe your top three pieces of advice for parents as they're navigating back to school with their kids range of ages, what would that be?
- [19:08]
A
So I'm not saying school tech is bad necessarily. Right. There's a lot of cool things that can come of it. And I get it. Kid might have homework or assignments and modules. There comes modules again, they might need to interact with or videos they might need to watch on YouTube. YouTube can help you learn skills and concepts. I mean, shoot, I had to look up some YouTube stuff when my kid was learning like around like 6th, 7th grade math, you know, because I was like, wait a minute, I haven't done this in a while. I went to YouTube.
- [19:42]
B
Yeah.
- [19:42]
A
And like so YouTube can be helpful, but can be helpful anyway. That's not what you asked. What are the, what are my tips? No connected tech in the bedroom or behind closed doors if they need to do homework on their school issued device. Okay. Do it in the kitchen, do it in the living room. It's not an. Let me take this to my bedroom. It's 11pm at night. Good night mom and dad. Because it's not going to be just homework happening. Also reach out to your school's whomever, counselor, principal, superintendent, IT director, media consultant, librarian, whomever, and be like, hey, can you help me understand what protections are enabled while our kids are at school? And what advice do you have for when my kid's at my house, how do I keep Them as safe as you do at school, at home. Right. If they can't answer that question, then you have every right to opt out of. This is eight. This is now something dangerous in my home. And so this is not okay.
- [20:49]
B
Right?
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A
It'd be like if the science teacher sent home chainsaws. You know, it's like, yeah, no, no, we're not gonna do that. And I know that sounds extreme, but
- [21:00]
B
sometimes that's the comparison that it takes to understand the impact of what tech is doing.
- [21:05]
A
Exactly, exactly. So yeah. So know where the tech is not, not in bedrooms. Figure out what parental controls and filters you need to enable on the school issued tech. And. Know that you're not alone. If you are struggling with this and you're like, I'm gonna be that parent that's gonna be the annoying parent that they're gonna be like, oh, here comes Mrs. Sally again, complaining about tech. You know, she needs to just go live in a barn. You're not alone. And the way that you become empowered is leaning on data. It's one thing to just be like, I don't like this girl. Cool, sorry, bye. But like, if you're like, science shows this, this, this, and this is detrimental for kids. And my kid has shown me how they are able to go on Roblox message strangers, upload inappropriate stuff to Google Drive. So until you can help me help them, like, we're not doing this.
- [22:14]
B
Right.
- [22:15]
A
So all that to say is, I'm telling you, not alone. You're like, great. What does that mean? Well, what that means is you can join the parenting in a tech world Facebook group and share your concerns. Because there's, I don't know, 700,000 parents there to help back you up. And then you can point to, well, in Minnesota they're doing this, and in Georgia they're doing this, and in Florida they're doing this. And wherever you live, there will be people who are able to support you. And you might even be in a district or private school that is actually ahead of the game, is actually proactively working to do what's best for kids despite whatever investment they may have made in technology. Right. School, man. I just shout out to all the kids going to school like, I have nightmares still about, like school about, like, I show up to class, I have no clothes on, I'm in class, all my teeth fall out. I show up and there's an exam that everybody knew about but me and I didn't study. Like, school stress is real.
- [23:16]
B
Yeah.
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A
And I haven't been in school in a very long time. So, just like kids, I'm proud of you. I'm proud of you for going to school.
- [23:24]
B
It's not easy.
- [23:26]
A
And teachers, man, y' all are amazing. You don't make enough money. And thank you. Thank you for all the time that you are spending with our precious children. And good teachers are just so rare. And shout out to Ms. Merritt, my third grade teacher, and Ms. Balboni, my fifth grade teacher, and Ms. Bell, my fourth grade teacher, all at St. Martin's Y'. All. I still think about things that happen in your classroom,
- [23:58]
B
Sam.