She spies on children
Philic Man Hin-nam is an unusual private detective. Her clients want her to spy - on their own children.
Suspicious parents call her when they fear their offspring are involved with drugs or being led astray. She often comes back with proof that parents' fears were indeed justified. Man, who works for Global Investigation and Security Consultancy, said there was a surge in the number of parents paying her to spy on their children.
Man said her company handled 298 investigations into children last year. That was a 68 per cent rise from the 177 cases in 2010.
In 120 cases last year, children were revealed to be involved with drugs, up 34 per cent from the previous year. Only 23 cases of the cases were found to have been false alarms. The Central Registry of Drug Abuse showed that there were 2,006 reported drug abusers under the age of 21 last year, a drop from 2,811 in 2010.
But Man says those figures are misleading. 'Children are more careful now ... they carry out these activities at home or in a rented room. So they become more 'invisible' and its harder for police to catch them,' she said.
She said her clients were mostly anxious parents who were having difficulty communicating with their children - so they turn to her.
'We stalk, monitor and install devices to look after their children, to prevent them from straying.'
She added that most children did not know they were being spied on, and how they were caught.
