Divorce in an online world - the influence of social networks in South Africa

Posted by: Bertus on Feb 03, 2010
Poking someone other than your spouse, on Facebook, may be grounds for divorce.
That may be a bit of an exaggeration, but more and more evidence from the popular social networking site is being used in divorce cases.
In fact, 1 in 5 divorce cases now cite inappropriate actions on Facebook as grounds for separating, in the UK. Also at eDivorce, South Africa's largest Online Internet Divorce Service more and more people are mentioning some sort of conduct by their spouses on social networking sites like facebook and Mxit as reasons for seperation.
Social networking has grown  in popularity over the years and can be regarded as the new singles bar equivalent for relationship issues, instead of being used to network and reconnect with friends, family, and co-workers, it has become another avenue for extramarital affairs.

Platforms such as these  have  been a great assistance to the legal community, it is another outlet to obtain probe-able, relevant evidence. On the international level, digital evidence has been brought forward in the ongoing Tiger Woods affair scandal, mainly in the form of phone conversations.
Some time ago the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory ruled that Facebook is a valid means to serve court notices to defendants, this was reported by the Australian newspaper The Age.
Actions in cyberspace are having a substantially higher bearing on how people perceive others in social settings and in formal situations, like job interviews.

According to Professor of Sociology Richard Lachmann at the University at Albany people do not yet understand how easy it is to access these things online. According to him, college kids think nothing of putting updates on their sites about being drunk all of the time or sleeping with so many people. But then when they enter the ‘real world,’ they wonder why they can’t find a job. Employers can easily go online and find this information. People’s actions are much easier to trace.
A far cry from cheap motels and meeting in secluded parking lots, mischievous significant others are now carrying out affairs nearly completely online for all of the world to see.
Emails. Instant Messaging. Blogs. Internet History. Even when these things are deleted, there is usually someone out there smart enough to make them reappear again.
On top of this, there are not a lot of laws regulating internet use and privacy online.