Strange

1 in 5 Divorces Refers to Facebook in the UK

by Jordan Yerman | December 31, 2009 at 10:23 am

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Lawyers are claiming that one in five divorces refers to Facebook in the UK. 20% of devorce petitions reference Facebook and other social networking sites, as people are finding out that their partners are cheating on them. Facebook (and Bebo and others) makes it easier to get in touch with "the one that got away", and it's also really easy to screw up your privacy settings so that your partner can see updates that you may not think they can see. Add booze-fuelled late-night Facebook sessions, and you have a recipe for disaster. It's not all bad, though: overall, UK divorce rates are actually down.

According to Mark Keenan, managing director of an online divorce firm, 20% :

"The most common reason seemed to be people having inappropriate sexual chats with people they were not supposed to."

Sometimes, though, it's not the reason for the divorce, but the medium through which a divorce is announced. Emma Brady found this out the hard way: Ms. Brady's husband announced the end of their marriage via Facebook status update.

Also, one UK law firm actually offers divorce vouchers as gifts.

In fact, hidden all the way at the bottom of the article is the rather relevant fact that the divorce rate in the UK has been falling recently, just as the popularity of Facebook has shot upwards. It seems like you'd have to suggest a lot more to prove that Facebook is to blame for these divorces, rather than just an additional element in the proceedings.

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Beaulieu

at 01:24 on January 1st, 2010

Perhaps the divorce rates are falling because of the costs of divorce and negative equity, there are lots of couples living together though leading separate lives. Sometime one partner refuses to divorce which creates extra problems.