Effects of parental controls in the context of Digital Forensics

Computer Science > Cryptography and Security [Submitted on 7 Aug 2026] Effects of parental controls in the context of Digital Forensics Selina Märchya, Mauro Vignatia, Frank Breitinger Parental control systems are designed to protect minors online, but can inadvertently obstruct digital forensic investigations. When enabled, these systems restrict administrative privileges, disable debugging options, and alter data accessibility, complicating evidence acquisition and analysis. This study empirically examines the impact of Microsoft, Google, and Apple parental controls on forensic processes across fifteen Windows, Android, and iOS devices. Through controlled experiments, we evaluate their impact on evidence accessibility and identify forensically sound methods to overcome these limitations. The findings provide practical guidance for investigators and contribute to improving forensic readiness in environments governed by parental control systems. Subjects: Cryptography and Security (cs.CR) Cite as: arXiv:2608.07016 [cs.CR]   (or arXiv:2608.07016v1 [cs.CR] for this version)   https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2608.07016 Focus to learn more Submission history From: Frank Breitinger [view email] [v1] Fri, 7 Aug 2026 09:25:35 UTC (314 KB) Access Paper: HTML (experimental) view license Current browse context: cs.CR < prev   |   next > new | recent | 2026-08 Change to browse by: cs References & Citations NASA ADS Google Scholar Semantic Scholar Export BibTeX Citation Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer (What is the Explorer?) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers (What is Connected Papers?) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps (What is Litmaps?) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations (What are Smart Citations?) Code, Data, Media Demos Related Papers About arXivLabs Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax (What is MathJax?)