In a report getting wide circulation in the world news media, the British Office of National Statistics claims the growth in Internet-based reunion Websites and text messaging availability is to blame for a rise in the British divorce rate, which the office says has hit a seven-year high.
The ONS reported August 31 that there were 153,490 divorces in England and Wales in 2003, up by 5,755 from 2002 and the third straight annual hike, not to mention being the highest total since 1996, which the ONS suggests means four out of ten marriages ends in divorce.
And the ONS is relying on the marriage guidance body known as Relate, which says about a tenth of all its new cases are now influenced by cyberspace, with people finding it easier to have affairs than before thanks to text messaging, e-mail, instant messaging, online dating and chat rooms, and reunion sites like Friends Reunited.
The site is said to have had an impact on at least one high-profile marriage: British soccer star David James split with his wife, Tanya, after thirteen years of marriage and four children together, after having an affair with a girlfriend from school days, Amanda Salmon, whom he met through Friends Reunited – and who left her own partner. James and Salmon have since broken up, though James is reportedly continuing with his divorce.
That site, according to British press reports, has experienced “massive growth,” allowing as it does for people to search for other people no matter how many years have passed since they last saw each other. People use the site to find anyone from former colleagues and classmates to former friends and especially former lovers, “leading in many cases to the breakdown of their existing relationship,” according to one British newspaper.
"In my experience, the Internet has had a big impact and is influencing a number of affairs,” Relate’s Christine Northam told the London Independent. “People sit in front of their computer screens all day and are using their spare time to find out what happened to old flames or embark on something new; it makes it all very easy."
British solicitor/mediator David Allison of Family Law Partnership told the paper it’s part of a pattern his firm sees as well: modern communication methods become factors in divorce cases because “it’s so easy to keep track of people by the Internet…while they do allow people to conduct affairs discreetly, they also leave a trail of evidence - by way of text messages and emails - and that can lead to break ups if they are discovered."
But before you go out and blame the Internet alone for any growing divorce rates, British social and legal experts would like to remind you that other, more traditional factors contribute: long working hours and the lack of stigma about divorce. On the other hand, Relate said that, while more people who come themselves from backgrounds that include divorce make it less likely that people see divorce as a bad thing, that very same factor can and often does make people see divorce negatively.
