Industry’s largest data set confirms predators are migrating to unregulated apps as tween body image issues skyrocket

ATLANTA, Feb. 18, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Bark Technologies, the leader in family digital safety solutions and developer of the Bark Phone and Bark Watch, released its 2025 Annual Report today. This year’s findings, based on a record 11.1 billion activities analyzed across families, reveal that predators aren’t disappearing. Instead, they’re migrating.

While predator alerts in monitored spaces have plummeted by 60% compared to 2021, Bark discovered a startling duality. Predators are moving to unmonitored digital spaces where parents and safety tools are currently blocked from seeing them. Simultaneously, the “visible” danger has shifted inward. Internalized mental health struggles, specifically disordered eating and self-hatred, are reaching extremely high levels in Bark’s youngest users.

The Shift in Risk: Why Predation Alerts are Declining

The 2025 data shows predator alerts for tweens hitting an all-time low of 4%, a significant drop from the pandemic peak of 2021. However, Bark leadership warns that this statistical decline is a “mirage” of safety when paired with rising national sextortion statistics.

“Processing over 11 billion activities this year helped us see the massive visibility gaps where children are vulnerable online,” explains Brian Bason, Bark Founder and CEO. “This scale of data highlights where parental oversight is being structurally blocked by some key social platforms.”

According to Titania Jordan, Bark’s Chief Parent Officer, the drop in alerts on monitored apps is a deceptive victory.

“The reality is that predators are intentionally moving to apps and spaces where safety tools are blocked, and parents aren’t present,” comments Jordan, “and legislation like Sammy’s Law (H.R. 2657) is the only way to change that. We can’t protect what we can’t see, and right now, Big Tech is keenly aware of the problem and is intentionally keeping parents in the dark.”

The Surge in Youth Mental Health Alerts

While external threats move into unmonitored spaces, another crisis is intensifying in the spaces we can see. Bark’s data reveals that children are struggling with their mental health at a level the company has never seen before. The most alarming area of concern is the surge in self-hatred. Tween engagement with content related to disordered eating has skyrocketed by 650% since 2021, rising from 1.96% to close to 15% in just four years.

“These unmonitored spaces aren’t just a safety gap—they’re a developmental trap, preying on brains that aren’t yet fully developed,” says Dr. Carrie Mackensen, psychologist and founder of Successful Parenting. “Bark’s 11.1 billion data points prove that we can no longer leave children to navigate these dopamine-driven environments alone. Parents are the surrogate brains that protect children while development continues, which is why Sammy’s Law is so important. The transparency it provides gives parents the boundaries and emotional scaffolding their children need to stay resilient in a digital world.”

The Path Forward: Supporting Sammy’s Law

Bark’s findings amplify the need for federal legislative action. Currently, large social media companies are blocking the technical access that parents need to monitor harmful interactions and activities, like sextortion. If passed, Sammy’s Law would provide life-saving solutions to parents by allowing them to use third-party safety tools, such as Bark. Currently, they are forced to rely on whatever safety tools the platforms provide, which are both insufficient and do not work across platforms. Sammy’s Law provides a cross-platform solution to the problem of keeping children safe online.

By The Numbers: The 2025 Bark Snapshot

• A New Baseline for Safety: Bark analyzed a record 11.1 billion messages and files in 2025. This massive dataset provides the industry’s most accurate look at the evolving risks facing children today.
• The Predator Migration: While alerts on traditionally monitored apps fell to 4% for tweens, this “deceptive dip” highlights the migration of predators toward unmonitored platforms. Among monitored spaces, Snapchat, Instagram, and Discord remain the top platforms for grooming and risky contact alerts.
• The Body Image Crisis: Engagement with content related to disordered eating and self-hatred has skyrocketed by 650% since 2021. This proves that the “invisible” mental health crisis is hitting children younger than ever before.
• The Rise of Digital Archives: In a significant shift, Tumblr has emerged as the #1 flagged app for severe suicidal ideation and depression. Youth are increasingly moving away from disappearing messages and toward searchable archives of toxic content.
• The Educational Blind Spot: For the first time, the workplace tool Slack is ranked as the #3 platform for depression alerts. Students are increasingly utilizing “educational” accounts provided by schools to discuss mental health struggles in spaces they believe are unmonitored.

To access the full 2025 Annual Report, including deep-dive data on specific app usage, age group insights, and emerging platform risks, please click here. To learn more about Bark, visit www.bark.us.

Platform Risk Rankings: 2025 At-A-Glance

The following rankings represent platforms with the highest volume of confirmed risky interactions analyzed by Bark across families in 2025.

Editor’s Note: These rankings are based on interactions occurring within monitored digital spaces. Bark’s 2025 findings suggest a significant migration of predatory behavior to unmonitored “shadow” platforms where safety tools are currently blocked by platform architecture.

About Bark Technologies

Bark is an online safety company that helps protect over 7 million kids at home and in more than 3,600 schools and districts across the U.S. Offering content monitoring, screen time management, location tracking, and more, Bark is the leading digital safety solution for parents, families, and schools. Products include the Bark app, the Bark Phone, the in-home web filter Bark Home, the Bark Watch, and the community give-back program Bark for Schools.

Using highly sophisticated artificial intelligence, Bark’s award-winning monitoring technology alerts families to concerning behaviors in a variety of categories, including bullying, suicidal ideation, threats of violence, sexual content, and online predation. Bark monitors more than 45 of today’s most popular social media platforms and apps, as well as text messages, images, videos, chats, emails, and files.

Visit www.bark.us to learn more.

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SOURCE Bark Technologies