Comtrend and Bark partner to deliver a comprehensive digital protection service powered by artificial intelligence.

Comtrend, a leader in advanced networking solutions, has partnered with Bark Technologies, an online safety service powered by artificial intelligence (AI) to enable a unique new offering that Service Providers can easily add to their existing Comtrend Gateways. Bark uses strong AI to proactively offer insight into kids and teens’ digital activities and protect families from potentially dangerous issues such as cyberbullying, online predators, and suicidal ideation. Bark helps protect more than 5.5 million kids across the U.S. and has alerted parents to tens of millions of potential issues. A Comtrend Gateway paired with Bark enables the most comprehensive digital protection service available today. Service Providers that offer this new service to subscribers can gain a competitive edge and increase revenue, all while better protecting families and communities.

Bark’s AI protects families without parents needing to manually monitor digital activities by only alerting them to issues of concern. Unlike other solutions that simply block activities, Bark uses advanced algorithms to monitor text, email, photos, audio, and over 30 of the most popular apps and social media platforms 24/7, raising alerts to potential dangers and establishing trust between parent and child by not allowing unfettered access to devices.

According to Bark’s 2020 Annual report which analyzed more than 2.1 billion messages to identify trends in online behavior among youth, 76.7% of tweens and 82% of teens experienced bullying as a bully, victim, or witness. Further, the introduction of virtual learning has led to new forms of online bullying.

Vice President of Sales & Marketing at Comtrend North America, John DiFrenna, comments, “Today, families face challenges that are different than in the past. Children communicate through many forms: text, chat, emojis, social posts, and more. Parents need a way to monitor these new forms of communications in order to know what is happening with their children. Bark has the expertise and knowledge to be able to analyze what is truly being communicated, use machine learning and AI to bring awareness to parents, and provide tools to let them take appropriate steps to protect their children.”

Bark offers comprehensive safety solutions with three levels of protection: home network protection to automatically protect any device on the home network, mobile phone protection to offer protection outside of the home network, and Internet/cloud protection which offers the most coverage of any monitoring tool. All three layers are critical components to protecting families and, together, are unique to any other offering available today.

“It’s exciting that Service Providers can partner with Comtrend and Bark to easily bring this service to parents,” said Skylar Walker, Director of Business Development at Bark. “Bark is now integrated into Comtrend Gateways, enabling Service Providers to help protect families, stand out from competitors, and boost the value of existing CPE. With Bark’s freemium model, Service Providers can offer basic protection to customers at no cost to them or subscribers, because we believe everyone should have access to basic internet safety from their Service Provider.”

Together, Comtrend and Bark’s Digital Monitoring Service powered by AI answers a growing need. It provides a smarter way to keep children safe, not only online, but in real life. Comtrend will be offering this service on their Gateways, and existing Comtrend Gateways will only require a firmware upgrade.

For more details on Bark and Comtrend Gateways that support Bark, please email NA.Sales@Comtrend.com.

About Comtrend
We know Service Providers. Comtrend has been in the business of supporting Communication Service Providers for over 30 years, and we are proud of our history and the partnerships that we have grown. Our mission is to design and manufacture purpose-built solutions for Service Providers, allowing them to easily provide reliable, best-in-class home connectivity to their subscribers. Comtrend remains committed to offering the latest industry technologies, including Fiber and DSL broadband gateways, wireless and Powerline home networking, and leading-edge Service Provider ACS analytics, management, and CAF Reporting Solutions.

About Bark
Bark helps families manage and protect their children’s digital lives. The award-winning service monitors 30+ of the most popular apps and social media platforms for signs of issues like cyberbullying, suicidal ideation, online predators, threats of violence, and more. Bark’s web filtering and screen time management tools empower families to set healthy limits around the websites and apps their kids can access and when they can visit them. Visit www.bark.us to learn more.