33% of UK divorce cases cite Facebook as reason for split

A lot of people make use of social networking sites like Facebook to keep in touch with one another. In fact, it was reported late last year that the majority of Britons are now using social networking sites. The percentage of adults who have used social networking sites rose from forty three percent in 2010 to fifty seven percent in 2011.

There are many advantages to being a part of the social network. For one, you can easily contact your old friends and acquaintances, catch up on what has happened or is happening with the people in your network, and so on and so forth.

But one huge disadvantage? It has also become one of the major reasons that has been cited in UK divorce cases. It was revealed that Facebook was the reason cited in 33 per cent of behaviour petitions in 2011, which is an increase of around 13 per cent from 2009.

This was reported by UK divorce website Divorce-Online, who carried out a survey of 5,000 petitions. The same number of petitions was also considered in the 2009 study.

Aside from being used as the cause for divorce, the social network is also commonly used when discussing allegations of the behaviour of the spouses when it came to the opposite sex. Facebook is also increasingly being used by spouses to make inappropriate or damaging comments on their public walls after the finalisation of their divorces or separations.

The reasons for listing the social network in behaviour petitions include sending ”inappropriate messages to members of the opposite sex”, “separated spouses posting comments about each other”, and “Facebook friends reporting spouse’s behaviour”.

Mark Keenan, spokesman for Divorce-Online has this piece of advice to share: “People need to be careful what they put on Facebook as the courts are now seeing a lot more evidence being introduced from people’s walls and posts in disputes over finances and children.”

Source – Yahoo