blog home Family Law How Social Media Posts Impact Your Wyoming Child Custody Case

How Social Media Posts Impact Your Wyoming Child Custody Case

By stladmin on February 8, 2022

Social media has become an important part of life for many people. It provides a great way to communicate, stay in touch with family and friends, and keep them up-to-date on various situations in your life. During a child custody case, however, social media is not your friend. The best thing to do is to stay away from it entirely and ask friends and family to leave you completely alone on social media until your child custody matter is finalized.

Avoid Social Media While Your Child Custody Case Is Pending

Divorce can be an emotional, stressful experience, particularly when children are involved. Divorcing parents, or parents engaged in a custody battle, may be tempted to post on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, or other social media platforms about what is going on with the case. This is one of the worst things you can do. Anything you post – or someone else posts about you – can be used to hurt your child custody case.

The best policy is to stay off social media altogether. If you post anything at all, do not:

• Vent about your child custody case, your child’s other parent, your attorney, or the judge
• Post anything about partying, drinking, or drugs
• Join any online dating websites
• Post about vacations, large purchases, or anything that could make you appear more financially well off
• Post anything the other side could use to make you look bad as a parent
• Say anything negative about your former spouse that could be interpreted as failing to foster a healthy parent-child relationship with the other parent
• Complain about the other parent’s parenting – for example, if the other parent dropped off your child unbathed and wearing dirty clothing

Who Might Be Monitoring Your Social Media During a Child Custody Case?

If you are in the middle of a custody dispute, your child’s other parent’s attorney may be searching social media for any evidence that could be used to their advantage. This could include derogatory comments made about the other parent by your friends or family members. It could also include posts by your child that reveal personal family details about your spending, relationships, etc.

Guidelines for Social Media Use During Child Custody Proceedings

• The safest approach to prevent social media from impacting your child custody case is to avoid it altogether until the custody matter is settled, instruct family and friends to leave you alone on social media, and carefully monitor your child’s social media use.
• Closing your accounts may be seen as a red flag, so the best thing to do is to leave them open with privacy settings and don’t post anything. Privacy settings do not guarantee privacy.
• Do not delete any posts that you believe may hurt your case. It could appear as though you have something to hide.
• If you do post anything on social media, be very sure that the other parent’s lawyer cannot use it to hurt your case and potentially damage your relationship with your child.

Our Gillette family law attorney at Steven Titus & Associates, P.C. can guide you in your child custody case and advise you specifically on social media usage. We understand how important it is to maintain your relationship with your child. Our goal is to guide you through the process of seeking child custody while making it as peaceful as possible for you and your children.

Call us at (307) 257-7800 to schedule a free case strategy session. We can answer any questions you have about social media and assist you in your child custody matter.