It's often not one of the first things you would consider when you are going through divorce, but in recent years, with the ever increasing popularity and user-base of social media platforms, we recommend you be incredibly careful what you post on social media during your divorce.

Forbes writer Jeff Landersrecommends going as far as suspending your social media accounts altogether until proceedings are over, and for good reason. It is a little known fact that it’s common for lawyers to use social media posts as evidence against you in Court, for example if you have many photos online of you out partying with your friends this could be used in support of an argument that you are an irresponsible parent, which could affect your contact. Similarly if you are arguing in Court that you have no money and on Facebook you are posting photos of yourself on holiday or with a new car, you could be found in contempt of Court.

Social media is surveillance: someone could follow very easily where you are, who you are with and what you are doing every time you post about it, and you could be criticised for your lifestyle choices in Court. American Judge Michele Lowranceexplains that social media can be used in evidence in Court without even violating your privacy rights, because there is no expectation of privacy when you post online.

You may think that you are safe with your privacy settings restricted but there are always mutual friends and family members that will report your online activity back to your ex-partner, and in return you can rely on them passing this information onto their legal representation. It is a difficult and upsetting time, but it is beneficial to resist the urge to vent online about your ex-partner and the Court proceedings, because all of this information is accessible to not only the Courts but potentially your current/future employers, and if you have them, your children.

No matter how much you despise your ex-partner, your children will always be half of them and will always have a relationship with their other parent. You risk alienating your children against you by writing cruel things online, even if you regret your post and delete it later your children could still discover it or be shown screen-caps of it. The healthiest thing you can do is speak to a therapist if you need to vent, and keep your social media spaces either silent or strictly professional.

It is also recommendedthat when children are involved even after the divorce has gone through you should respect your children‚ own privacy, and keep their details off social media where it is accessible to everyone. Trust us, your children will thank you for keeping their private lives private when they are older.

Our advice remains: take precautions. Do you really need to be posting about your divorce on social media when it could come back to haunt you? Keep you social media activity minimal and if you do need to use it, avoid airing marital laundry.