Dad concerned mom using kids for content
My child’s mother puts our children on social media and uses them for content. I do not like it one bit, but she says it’s her choice to make. My older son says he gets teased about it at school. His mother doesn’t care. We co-parent well otherwise, and have a system in place where we share decision making. Could the court order her to keep our children off social media?
I understand your concern and agree completely with your position on this issue of putting and exposing children on social media platforms. Your children’s mother ought to know better. Surely she is aware of the dangers of what she is doing and how hundreds, if not thousands of children around the world have been victims of predators, some of whom have operated on these platforms. Any responsible mother, in this day and age, must know and appreciate the dangers of exposing their children on social media platforms.
Parents are obligated to ensure their children’s safety and not expose them to dangers and dangerous situations or put them in harm’s way. And wherein they are exposed, they should be protected from the possibility of any harm occurring to them (Child Care and Protection Act).
Your children’s mother is breaching all these obligations and she could find herself in a very difficult position for any harmful consequences which any of her children suffer as a result of “her choice” to expose them on social media.
From your letter, it seems that your co-parenting arrangements were discussed and arranged between you two informally and without the intervention of any court. While this is admirable and could work very well, all the required standards of law are clearly not being recognised by the mother. She states that the choice is hers, when in fact the choice must be of you both. You as the father have an equal legal right to custody and care and control of your children and you should both make the decisions about their upbringing and lifestyle. She as the mother does not have any superior rights over yours.
The fact that your older son has reported that he gets teased in school about the social media exposure, indicates his concern about the matter. I assume the younger children have not stated what effect the exposures are having on them. Have they been asked?
You have asked whether the court can order her to keep your children off social media. Yes it can. You must however either obtain the services of an attorney-at-law to assist you to make the application, or go to the Family Court in your parish and seek the clerk’s assistance.
I would suggest that you not only address this very serious and important issue of the exposures on social media, but also seek to have your co-parenting put in as orders of the court to ensure that no further obligation of care is overlooked or ignored by either of you, as all your acts must be in the best interests of the children.
I have no doubt that you will succeed pursuant to The Children (Guardianship and Custody) Act. Please proceed so that check and balances can be put in place for this mother who believes that “her choice” overrides her children’s best interests and the rights and equal involvement of the father.
All the very best and all success and peace of mind to your children.
Margarette May Macaulay is an attorney-at-law, Supreme Court mediator, notary public, and women’s and children’s rights advocate. Send questions via e-mail to allwoman@jamaicaobserver.com; or write to All Woman, 40-42 1/2 Beechwood Avenue, Kingston 5. All responses are published. Mrs Macaulay cannot provide private, personal responses.
