This post is about an unexpected pregnancy of a teenage girl in Oklahoma. The father wants to get custody of the child, so he can take care of his kid. However, the mother has already put the child up for adoption. The dispute is between the biological father and the adoptive parents. What does this has to do with social media? Let me explain.
The mother of the, now 2 year old, child has sent a Facebook message to the biological father to tell him she was pregnant. The father claims to have never read that message during the pregnancy, but found out after the child was born. When he found out he had a kid he immediately took action, since he wanted to take care of it, and financially support it. His parental rights were terminated after a couple of months after the delivery.
Oklahoma law states that “The natural father of a child, born out of wedlock has to be notified of the existence of the child”. This way the father has the opportunity to take responsibility, and take care of his child.
Technically, the mother has notified the father, using Facebook. Therefore, lower courts terminated the parental rights of the father. The highest court has now ruled that a single Facebook message is not enough:
“Instead of contacting Father directly, Mother left him a message on Facebook, which is an unreliable method of communication if the accountholder does not check it regularly or have it configured in such a way as to provide notification of unread messages by some other means. This Court is unwilling to declare notice via Facebook alone sufficient to meet the requirements of the due process clauses of the United States and Oklahoma Constitutions because it is not reasonably certain to inform those affected”
There are several comments on this ruling. Some claim that Facebook is just as reliable as a written letter, since a letter can also be left unopened and therefore not been read.
What is your opinion about this situation? Do you think that a Facebook message is enough to tell someone he is the father of a child?
References:
Wall Street Journal, http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2014/10/17/court-facebook-not-a-valid-way-for-mom-to-tell-dad-shes-pregnant/?mod=WSJBlog
While I find it hard to admit, after evaluating other options, such as writing a letter or attempting to make a phone call or send an email, Facebook in today’s world has the same impact of contact. Posts and messages on Facebook and other social media can be used in the courtroom as evidence, so why could it not be accepted as a means of legitimate communication? While it find it to be a harsh situation, I do find that Facebook is considered a reliable communication method. This sentiment may have been different a few years ago, but in today’s world, if you have a Facebook, people tend to check their messages there, in general.
While I wouldn’t personally handle the situation this way, I agree that the law is on the mother’s side of the argument in regards to social media.
In this case I would take the father’s side.
I personally don’t use Facebook unless I have to or when I get really bored. However, I know that most people use it 24/7. So, to relate to the real issue of whether or not Facebook is a good medium of communication I would say yes, but when it comes to serious things I would prefer a letter, email or a phone call. I mean the government does not use Facebook to inform you about anything. Or to make it even simpler, if this was a more serious matter such as a death of a family member or an eviction notice or even loss of citizenship, would you like to be contacted via Facebook for these things or would you prefer to be informed via other communication mediums?
Hmm this is a quite bizar situation. To tell the father of your child that he’s going to become a dad through facebook is already very strange in my opinion. But on the other hand, if you desided to tell it with a Facebook message I think it’s a reliable communication method.
But in this case it’s not clear if the facebook account of that men is an active facebook account or not. If she send it to an account what has not been active after that she send the message he could probably not have read it. But if they have proof that the father is active on his facebook account (you can check this by looking if he posted status updates or send messages to others) I think that Facebook should be seen as an reliable communication method such as letters or phone calls.