English
EspañolHow is technology used in co-parenting situations?
There are apps that help with communication between parties in family law cases or help them coordinate custody and visitation schedules. These apps can track communications about the child with functions such as:
- an electronic journal;
- a message board;
- a shared expense log; and
- a child custody/visitation calendar.
How can co-parenting technology help me stay safe?
Apps that track communications between parents can protect you in a few ways. If there is a dispute between you and your co-parent about what was said, there is an electronic record of it. Knowing communications may easily be seen by the judge might deter an abuser from using co-parenting communications to harass you. Alternatively, the log may help if you have to prove abuse or harassment in court or provide documentation to an attorney or law enforcement official.
These apps can also provide clear visitation schedules that clarify the custody arrangement when parents need to plan vacations or other activities. Using such tools therefore reduces the need for parents to speak in person or over the phone. This could reduce or eliminate your and your child’s exposure to high-conflict communications that may otherwise happen in person or over the phone.
Are there any risks with using co-parenting technology?
One risk to using co-parenting technology apps is that, just like other types of apps, it may require you to reveal more personally identifying information than you are comfortable sharing. Some aspects of the app that may affect your privacy or safety are:
- It may require location services to be turned on;
- It may collect and share data about you with other companies;
- The app or web portal may not be secure;
- You may only be able to use it from your phone, with no option to use a browser, which could be an issue if you think the abuser may be monitoring your phone;
- It may not remove metadata from images or videos that you upload. The metadata could include sensitive information like your location. You can see what metadata a file has, and remove it, using online tools. If you are using a laptop or desktop, you can learn how to remove the metadata on the University of Michigan Safe Computing website. (WomensLaw is not affiliated with that website and cannot vouch for the accuracy of it; we provide it for your information only.)
If you are uncomfortable with a particular app, you may be able to ask the judge to order a different app.
To think through whether or not using some sort of communication tool may work for your situation, you may want to talk to a lawyer who specializes in custody and domestic violence issues.
To learn more about custody in your state, go to our Custody page and select your state from the drop-down menu.
