Every parent wants to protect his or her child from on-line bullying and inappropriate sharing of personal information.

For parents who have reason to fear that their child may be engaging in risky on-line behaviour or enduring cyber bullying, knowing the right course of action is not always easy.

No parent wants to invade their child’s privacy but many kids are just too young to see the lines between acceptable and unacceptable on-line chatter and sharing of personal content.

Often they will try and hide things from their parents for various reasons including secrecy and embarrassment. For concerned parents, having a means to check for deleted information on their child’s mobile phone can provide the necessary insights and protection against unwanted on-line behaviour.

DataLab MD, Cameron Hansen, says he has worked with many schools and parents to provide a quick and in-depth review of individual mobile devices in particular.

“We believe our service is essential to provide parents assistance in stopping on-line bullying or get to the bottom of inappropriate sharing of information.

“However not every parent can afford to pay hundreds of dollars for a forensic investigation so we try and keep our fees low charging less than $250,” he says. “That’s a lot less than what other agencies are quoting and provides excellent value considering we use the same tools used by the FBI and as seen on the popular show CSI.”

“We’re also well aware of the sensitivity and stress for the family concerned surrounding a forensic investigation so we try to reduce downtime and have the mobile device in and out within a few hours.”

He said typically they investigate deleted data from text messages, WeChat, log files, GPS locational applications and photos. “This data can quickly provide the school or parent with valuable insights into who their child is engaging with and reliable evidence of abusive conversations down to exactly when they have taken place,” he says. “In extreme cases we can even locate where a child has been using GPS tracking data.“

DataLab are New Zealand’s premier data recovery service matching their high-tech laboratory, featuring state of the art ISO5 clean room facilities, with years of experience and cost effective recovery solutions. To find out more contact Datalab on 0800 DATALAB (328 2522) or find them at www.datalab.co.nz.