Facebook Involved in 33 Percent of UK Divorces

Facebook as a reason for filing for divorce is becoming more popular with 33% of behaviour petitions in 2011 contained the name of the social network, which is an increase from 2009, when only 20% contained the same word.

UK divorce website Divorce-Online carried out the survey with 5,000 people in both 2011 and 2009, with Facebook relating to spouse's behaviour with the opposite sex, and spouses using the website to make comments about their exes after separation.

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The top three reasons for listing Facebook in the petitions, according to the survey, were: Inappropriate messages to members of the opposite sex; Separated spouses posting nasty comments about each other; and, Facebook friends reporting spouse’s behaviour. 

It's interesting to note that Twitter only appeared in 20 petitions out of the 5,000 surveyed. When it did appear, the reason was using Twitter to make comments about the exes.

Mark Keenan a spokesman for Divorce-Online said if someone wants to have an affair or flirt with the opposite sex then social networks are the easiest place to do it.

He said: "People need to be careful what they write on their walls as the courts are seeing these posts being used in financial disputes and children cases as evidence."

This post originally appeared at www.t3.com.