Wayne Rooney has recently been involved in a spat on Twitter with a Liverpool fan. Rooney tweeted “hope u turn up if u don't gonna tell everyone ur scared u little nit. I'll be waiting” but later went on to say it was “a bit of banter”.
It’s not only celebrities who get caught up in the problems that social networking sites can cause. Far too often in family law cases, comments on twitter and facebook are being raised. In my experience, it is usually in cases involving children where one parent will make a comment which the other will interpret to be about them or will comment about what happened at Court or what they intend to do. Rooney clearly says that his comments were “a bit of banter” but the person who the comment was aimed at may not have seen it that way. You must be really careful about what you put on social network sites and think about who has access to them. Whilst you may think that you have blocked the other person from your page, any comment you make could easily be tracked back to the other person through friends of friends. If you are involved in family proceedings, or could be in the future, you may find that your innocent comment could be raised.
You also shouldn’t forget that family law proceedings are confidential. Talking about what happened at Court on your facebook or twitter page could be a breach of confidentiality.
So next time you go to tweet or update your status, think about what you are doing and whether you could face repercussions from what you, and Wayne Rooney, thought was “a bit of banter”.
By family law solicitor, Laura Hankinson
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