Is Spotify Safe? How Bark Can Help Protect Your Kids

**This blog post was updated on May 22, 2023. **

Is Spotify safe for kids? Good news — Bark can monitor Spotify, the popular music-streaming service. The ability to monitor this widely used app (along with many others that Bark monitors) offers parents unprecedented insight into what their kids are listening to. Our award-winning service analyzes a child's most recently played tracks and then scans the lyrics for all of the same issues we monitor everywhere else — cyberbullying, depression, suicidal ideation, threats of violence, and more.

Is Spotify Safe? What Songs Can Reveal

Music is an incredibly powerful way for kids to express themselves, and carefully curated playlists can range from upbeat celebratory anthems to the saddest of breakup songs. Any parent who’s spent an evening on the couch listening to Bonnie Raitt’s “I Can’t Make You Love Me” can definitely understand. But what happens when a child’s emotional state is reflected by what they’re listening to? Much like a Google search, a Spotify search can contain information that parents need to know about. For example, if you type “suicide” into the Spotify search bar, you’ll instantly get hundreds of songs about it.

Spotify has also been found to have pornographic and sexual content in its library, which kids can easily be exposed to. There is an explicit content filter that, when toggled, can block this content. However, there is no passcode protection which means any changes parents make to the settings in Spotify can be easily reversed by kids.

Bark’s service can analyze song titles on Spotify and more. Even if the title itself doesn’t explicitly mention a concerning issue, the lyrics might, and so those are also scanned for potential dangers.  Our technology goes beyond just looking for keywords — it uses contextual analysis to identify lyrical content that parents might want to know about.

Turning Songs Into Teaching Moments

Knowing what kids are listening to can clue parents into what they’re thinking and feeling. There are multiple ways kids can express themselves through music, and for many kids, they may be experimenting with new genres and styles. Maybe they've started listening to songs with a lot of violent imagery and profanity — when you get a Bark alert, you can sit down with your child and discuss what they like about it while also explaining why you’re concerned. Monitoring Spotify is a way for parents to better understand the world their kids are living in, providing opportunities to discuss the things that matter to them.

About Bark

Is Spotify safe, and what about other platforms? In addition to Spotify, Bark monitors texts, chat, email, YouTube, and 30+ social platforms for signs of cyberbullying, adult content, sexual predators, depression, suicidal ideation, and more. Our product enables parents to work together with their children to help keep them safe online and in real life. Start your free trial today.