Episode 115
Youth Pastor Review Aura and Bark vs Covenant Eyes
September 19th, 2024
13 mins 58 secs
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About this Episode
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DESCRIPTION
A Youth Pastor's Review on the Parental Control Apps of
•Covenant Eyes
•Aura + Circle
•Bark
Also, which phone is best, iPhone vs Android for Generation Alpha and online Safety
//SHOWNOTES & TRANSCRIPTS
http://www.hybridministry.xyz/115
======================================
📓SHOWNOTES
//MEET GEN ALPHA
https://www.amazon.com/Generation-Alpha-Mark-McCrindle/dp/0733646301
//AURA + CIRCLE
https://www.buy.aura.com
//BARK
https://www.bark.us/pricing/
//COVENANT EYES
https://covenanteyes.sjv.io/g1zVZA
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🕰️TIMECODES
00:00 The 3 Best Parental Control Apps on the Market
00:44 Aura + Circle Review
04:42 Bark Review
08:59 Covenant Eyes Review
TRANSCRIPT
00:00:00:00 - 00:00:00:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
In
00:00:00:16 - 00:00:07:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
this episode, we are going to look at the three best parental control apps that are on the market. We're going to
00:00:07:23 - 00:00:13:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
explore what each of their features have to offer where they don't. As you know, tech always has shortcomings. And so
00:00:13:16 - 00:00:20:03
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
we're going to try to kind of explore and and crack the door open on what some of those things might be.
00:00:20:06 - 00:00:42:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I'm going to give you what I believe you should choose between an iPhone or an Android phone for one of your children. And finally, we're going to flesh out the age old debate what do we do about phones and distractions as it pertains to education and youth ministry? But first and foremost, we're going to be exploring these three apps Aura versus Bark versus covenant.
00:00:42:27 - 00:01:12:00
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So let's dive in first here with Aura according to what we see here on their website. And I'm not an aura user, and I did not get the, a trial or free trial to, to check this out. And so I am just going to be going based on what I see on their website. But as someone who has 13 years of of youth ministry experience and is also a dad, I know a thing or two about, my way around these apps and what's, what they're offering and where maybe some of the shortcomings might be.
00:01:12:02 - 00:01:33:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But Aura, I believe, starts with a little bit of a baseline of security. And so I think they're a security app that has added parental control features into it. Later, rather than being a parental control app first. Right. So each of these, you can tell each of these starts and a little bit of a different place. And so Aura starts with security.
00:01:33:25 - 00:01:56:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so one of the things that Aura has to offer is, you know, if you're here on on YouTube, you'll see some of these things on screen, but something about content filtering and safe search and YouTube, safe mode. And they'll check their history and their internet usage and, and time left and stuff like that. You can do things like time limits and pausing the internet and bedtime and bonus time.
00:01:56:07 - 00:02:15:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
They also have some gaming features and things that can keep kids safe online, but you'll see that Aura and Bark are in direct competition, because in just a minute, we're gonna look at the Bark versus Aura page. But Aura has parental controls and they are now in partnership with circle. You might remember Circle by Disney. So Aura and circle are not together.
00:02:15:10 - 00:02:40:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so with circle powered by circle Aura offers content filtering, offers screen time limits, bedtime pausing, the internet, internet usage reports, and this is I always pay attention to stuff like this because this is what I want to know. Right? So like I'm going to read what this says, get a complete picture of kids internet use across all devices so you can make informed decisions about the amount of screen time that's right for your family.
00:02:40:08 - 00:03:03:29
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
I'm still not sure what they're doing with that and how they're, tracking the the usage report of that, the internet history. It'll, track kids online habits to spot overuse on certain apps and websites, and see which sites were blocked. And so that to me is just like, a screen time, you know, kind of report like how many minutes it has been on TikTok, how many minutes it has been on YouTube, so to speak.
00:03:03:29 - 00:03:24:10
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You can give online time, safe gaming, safe browsing, and then antivirus and dark web monitoring. So those things right there again, sort of communicate to me like they're about like the safety online and like hackers and those types of things and those are valuable. Don't get me wrong. Right. Here's how they do parental controls here. They you can add your child, you link their device, and then you just customize it.
00:03:24:10 - 00:03:43:21
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And based on the screenshot here, you can either block or not block. Right. So discord block or not block, Facebook block or not block. And if you remember in our last episode linked right here at the top of the screen, if you're here on YouTube, I talked about moderation. Right. And as your child grows older, figuring out how to sprinkle in more elements of moderation.
00:03:43:21 - 00:04:07:27
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so in the same kind of vein, this is a very like yes or no sort of response. Like, can they be on this app or not? Versus how do they make wise decisions while they're on that app? And you know, as you're parenting, there may be certain apps you want to keep your kids completely away from. But as you're getting older and developing and showing more responsibility, how do you offer them that without giving them full, unlimited and unleashed rein on it?
00:04:07:29 - 00:04:32:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So let's talk about pricing. It looks like if you pay an annualized version of it, you are at about $8.33 per month. Or if you do like the monthly breakdown, it's about $11 per month. So 833 per month billed annually. You're looking at $99.96, per year versus 11, which is $132 per year. So that seems reasonable to me for a subscription.
00:04:32:28 - 00:04:52:15
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like I if I were a customer, I would not be upset about that price tag. Of course, you gotta do what works best for you. So bark in comparison to talk about Barc, now they have this website. Here's literally bark versus circle. Plus the aura app. Right. So it's literally they're comparing their suite of products versus aura.
00:04:52:15 - 00:05:10:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So you can see these two are in a little bit of competition with one another. And so let's just look at how they compare and how they stack up against them. So it says both of them can block specific apps, bark can block specific sites, and it can choose from 19 different categories to, block from.
00:05:10:18 - 00:05:33:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
They have location tracking. Both of them do. Both of them can create custom screen time schedules. Here apply different screen time rules to different day. So this is bark can create specific rules for each day of the week based on your family or has different schedules for weekdays and weekends. And so I guess, or, according to bark here, has a weekday option and a weekend option.
00:05:33:23 - 00:05:54:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
That's it. Or bark, you can do different days. That may be useful for certain things, like maybe a one day, a heavy soccer practice day. And you can't use phones that day as much. I'm not sure. But, you know, there is more it sounds like more flexibility on that. But here in this is true content monitoring, bark gives themselves a check, as you would assume that the company would.
00:05:54:22 - 00:06:15:09
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It gives Aura an X. And so let's see what it says here. So this skin text email phone video, 30 plus apps and social media platforms for issues in children's phones, tablets and Chromebooks where or does not offer true content monitoring. They don't use advanced technology to look for keywords in context. However, you can monitor or view internet usage or history of an app, website or category.
00:06:15:09 - 00:06:35:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And we did see that. And so it looks like bark, is a little bit more, invasive. And parents may like that may not. Right. And so that's a good thing. Also alerts for sexual content, cyberbullying and depression. Bark alerts are sent for worrisome content across 19 different categories. And you can add unlimited devices for each of your kids.
00:06:35:14 - 00:06:53:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
You can do that on both of them. So, you monitor content. And so here's how this looks on the screenshot. If you're watching here on screen, it sends a little alert. And so it actually parses out these words that may look like, you know, this may be bullying. And, and that's different than just straight up, like, content or website or, you know what I'm saying.
00:06:53:14 - 00:07:10:11
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So that's really good and that's really helpful for parent. And so again this as a parent, you may be looking at this and think how you know, how grateful you might be for something like that. Commanded screen time here. It looks like, you can set schedules, you can block certain websites, certain apps. You can track locations. All that's great.
00:07:10:13 - 00:07:26:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Let's talk about pricing. So Burke has, kind of a variety, a lot of different suites. They've been in the game for a while, so they have Burke Premium, which is $14 per month, and then Burke Junior, which is $5 per month. And the difference is both of them can manage screen time. Both of them can filter websites.
00:07:26:26 - 00:07:51:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Both of them can keep up with locations. However, Burke Junior can't monitor text emails from 30 plus apps or get alerts for things like cyber bullying. In addition to that, you should know that Burke has a variety of different types of content. So they have phones, they have their app, and then they have thing called Burke home. And so that's to monitor things like smart screens, smart TVs, gaming, and stuff like that.
00:07:51:06 - 00:08:11:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so, within the phone of Bark, right, there's the starter plan, which it says starting at $39 a month. What you get for that is unlimited talk, text, no internet, the App Store or games as it advances up $49 unlimited talk, text and Wi-Fi. So no data. 59 is unlimited talk text, four gigs of Wi-Fi data, or like data.
00:08:11:22 - 00:08:32:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Data like you're not on a Wi-Fi network. 69 is unlimited. Talk text eight gigs and 89 is unlimited talk text in data. So a bark phone, if you're just getting started, you don't already have a phone that you're trying to retrofit for your kid. For online safety, Bark seems like a the phone seems like a great way to get started, especially introducing some of these things to children.
00:08:32:06 - 00:08:58:18
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
The app Bark Premium is $14 a month, which nets out to, or is about $99 a year if you pay in the annualized version. So again, compared to aura, that's right. In that same range. And then they also offer the home thing. And so the thing is, if you add the phone plus the app, plus the home, the phone, if you go at it's like most expensive is, a little over a thousand a year, the apps $99 a year, and the home is about $72 per year.
00:08:58:20 - 00:09:16:14
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Now, the third one that I want to look at is Covenant Eyes. And now, if you've never heard of Covenant Eyes, so like I said, they each start with a different sort of baseline. So aura I would say starts with like internet safety. Bark is parental controls. I feel like an aura sort of has retrofitted their, you know, company to kind of match that.
00:09:16:14 - 00:09:34:25
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And then Covenant Eyes is honestly a little bit more like purity and, have like having good online habits. And so I think it may start with a little bit older mindset and a little bit older demographic. However, I will just be clear, like I actually have this installed on my device and you're going to see why here in just a minute.
00:09:34:28 - 00:10:00:26
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
It starts with the concept of having allies or basically people that you can, trust and relate to. And so these people get your reports and, and keep, track of your internet monitoring and your internet habits and they'll get reports every couple of weeks. And so what Covenant Eyes does is you install, a little program on your computer and it monitors everything on the screen.
00:10:00:28 - 00:10:24:06
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Now, listen, I've heard stories as a youth pastor, have been in youth ministry almost 14 years of kids who will go to like the Bible app, click on a link, it'll open up a browser, and then they're just on the Bible app. And so what, like a bark or an aura will do is they would look at that and they would say, hey, they're on the Bible app, but they're not telling you what actually is showing up on their screen on the Bible app.
00:10:24:06 - 00:10:43:24
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And if they're just using the Bible app as the gateway into something else that doesn't actually do us any good, we're covenant eyes. The difference is it shows every single thing on the screen. So even though you're in the Bible app, what is showing up on the screen is what's really being monitored and what's really being tracked. And I really, really like that.
00:10:43:24 - 00:11:02:16
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And as a parent, I really, really appreciate that because I can set myself up as one of my children's allies and I can go in to their account and I can look at everything that they do. I'll get a weekly summary report, but if I go in, I can look at it almost minute by minute of what is been shown and what has been on their screen recently.
00:11:02:17 - 00:11:22:04
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And, it will send alerts for things that are alarming. You can, you know, like it'll say like, hey, this website doesn't seem like a good website or it's unsafe or whatever, but if there's like if you're more stuck in the gray and it's like, it's just like images that are not so, honoring to God on like, social media or like Instagram or whatever.
00:11:22:04 - 00:11:42:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Like it will also pick those things up to them. That's what I really, really appreciate about an app like Covenant Eyes. And so, the the difference is, it's about $184 per year. So is the most expensive of them all. I have been to use it for a while. And so before they did this they did just website kind of monitoring.
00:11:42:12 - 00:12:09:23
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
But now they've, created this kind of AI product to monitor every single thing on screen. Now it can be used for both iPhones and androids. On the iPhone app, I believe that you have to download an app. And then everything within that app is tracked. But you and I know that our lives live within other apps, like we don't just go to like, Safari, and that's the only place that we browse the internet like we're on TikTok, we're on YouTube, we're on Instagram.
00:12:09:25 - 00:12:28:19
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And so if you want everything monitored, it has to be through the app on an iPhone. However, one of the reasons I prefer Android and I would recommend that, by the way, is, it tracks every single thing on every single screen over all apps. Every single thing on the screen is always being monitored. And I like that.
00:12:28:19 - 00:12:46:12
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I appreciate that. And so you give up some, you know, social equity because you are the cause for the green bubbles. But every single thing on the phone is always being monitored. And so between these three aura and Mark and covenant, as I would recommend Covenant Eyes, and I would recommend it being used with an Android phone.
00:12:46:14 - 00:13:04:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I, think that if you went that route for your kids or even for yourself, you will not be disappointed. And I just wanna let you know. Link down below. There is an app to, give Covenant Eyes a try. They have a complete 30 day money back guarantee so you don't have anything to lose. Give it a shot, see if you like it.
00:13:04:22 - 00:13:27:01
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
And I believe it is worth it. And what that leads us to as a result, out of this sort of generation alpha conversation that we've been having is what do we do as educators and what do we do as a youth pastors with phones. If all the all these kids are getting phones that earlier and earlier ages and they're bringing them to church and they're bringing them to youth group, like, what do we do with all of them and how do we handle that?
00:13:27:03 - 00:13:44:22
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
Well, I sat down recently with my friend Josh Baldwin, and we had a conversation about what this means for cell phones and youth ministry and navigating distractions. Do we cut them all out or do we find a way to lean into them? So I'm excited for you to take a listen to that conversation. If you're watching here on YouTube is linked right here on screen.
00:13:44:24 - 00:13:57:28
Nick Clason | Hybrid Ministry
So go ahead and take a look at that. And don't forget, as you do that, we at the Hybrid Ministry Show are trying to make digital discipleship easy and possible and accessible. So as always, don't forget to stay hybrid.