Facebook Fuelling Divorce, Research Claims
The social networking site, which connects
old friends and allows users to make new
ones online, is being blamed for an
increasing number of marital breakdowns.
Divorce lawyers claim the explosion in the
popularity of websites such as Facebook and
Bebo is tempting to people to cheat on their
partners.
Suspicious spouses have also used the
websites to find evidence of flirting and
even affairs which have led to divorce.
One law firm, which specializes in divorce,
claimed almost one in five petitions they
processed cited Facebook.
Mark Keenan, Managing Director of
Divorce-Online said: "I had heard from my
staff that there were a lot of people saying
they had found out things about their
partners on Facebook and I decided to see
how prevalent it was I was really surprised
to see 20 per cent of all the petitions
containing references to Facebook.
"The most common reason seemed to be people
having inappropriate sexual chats with
people they were not supposed to."
Flirty emails and messages found on Facebook
pages are increasingly being cited as
evidence of unreasonable behaviour.
Computer firms have even cashed in by
developing software allowing suspicious
spouses to electronically spy on someone's
online activities.
One 35-year-old woman even discovered her
husband was divorcing her via Facebook.
Conference organiser Emma Brady was
distraught to read that her marriage was
over when he updated his status on the site
to read: "Neil Brady has ended his marriage
to Emma Brady."
Last year a 28-year-old woman ended her
marriage after discovering her husband had
been having a virtual affair with someone in
cyberspace he had never met.
Amy Taylor 28, split from David Pollard
after discovering he was sleeping with an
escort in the game Second Life, a virtual
world where people reinvent themselves.
Around 14 million Britons are believed to
regularly use social networking sites to
communicate with old friends or make new
ones.
The popularity of the Friends Reunited
website several years ago was also blamed
for a surge in divorces as bored husbands
and wives used it to contact old flames and
first loves.
The UK’s divorce rate has fallen in recent
years, but two in five marriages are still
failing according the latest statistics.
Mr Keenan believes that the general divorce
rate will rocket in 2010 with the recession
taking the blame.
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