The world of divorce and family law is always evolving, and with these developments has come improved processes and better divorces (a phrase that many people may seem like a myth). In a similar, albeit more rapid, way, the world of technology is always evolving. In the past few decades, we have made amazing strides with the public proliferation of the internet and the advent of the smartphone.
Part of this evolution means that we are all connected in ways that we never could have imagined two decades ago; but another part of this means that we have lost a sense of privacy, as our lives become much more accessible and, indeed, public. Take social networking sites, like Facebook, as an example of this.
Facebook plays a huge role in divorce nowadays, and in ways some people probably wouldn’t imagine. According to a recent report, roughly 33 percent of divorce filings referenced “Facebook” in them. The context for how “Facebook” was used in these filings is largely irrelevant, because it is pretty easy to imagine. Maybe a spouse communicated with an ex, and started an affair; maybe the site was used to talk with people abroad about hiding assets; or maybe there were damning photographs that sparked a divorce.
One way that Facebook can impact divorce is with child custody. If the divorcing parents can’t agree on child custody and one wants sole custody, there could be information on Facebook that establishes why the other parent is unfit for custody. Again, photos or messages could show a judge that a mother or father should not have custody.
Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution, “‘Facebook’ named in a third of divorce filings,” George Mathis, Feb. 11, 2014
