Listen, I'm not saying you're wrong. In fact, there was a period in my life where I would have strongly agreed with you.

All I'm saying is that, if I was his position, I honestly don't know what I do. Being a parent and living to see your own child die is one of the worst things I can possibly imagine. So I'm just not going to pretend like it's an easy, clear-cut decision when I'm not the one going through it.

You're definitely entitled to your opinion but as an owner of a phone with sensitive data, I in no way, would want anyone knowing my ongoings. Including parents.

All he is really hoping for are some more photos of his son and of what turned out to be the last couple years of his life. He's not talking about browser history or emails.

I agree that it wouldn't be good for his parents to find a bunch of dick pics or, I don't know, pictures of him in a weird orgy or something. And that's why I said I would recommend having a neutral third-party actually be the one to go through it—someone who isn't going have their opinion of him changed because they didn't know him—and either give him the anything he might want to have of his son (or at least delete anything that his son wouldn't he wanted his family to see).

So I think it's possible to help his parents find closure without potentially sullying their memory of him. Right now, the phone and iPad are these last vestiges of their son's all-too-short life. Being able to access his photos and, hopefully, see pictures of him having fun with his friends and happy will just help them know that their son had a good life, even if it was short. But it's the part about not being able to actually know—to be so close but still outside their grasp—that is hard for them.