Virtual discovery: Amy Taylor, who is divorcing her husband after he cheated on her online For most couples, social networking websites such as Facebook are a harmless way to keep in touch with friends and acquaintances.
But many are finding out the hard way about the online temptations on offer, as the sites are blamed for an increasing number of divorces.
According to one firm of lawyers, almost one in five of the divorce petitions it deals with cite Facebook as a factor.
Mark Keenan, managing director of Divorce-Online said: 'I heard from my staff there were a lot of people saying they had found out things about their partners on Facebook and I decided to see how prevalent it was.
'I was really surprised to see 20 per cent of all the petitions containing references to Facebook. The most common reason seemed to be people having inappropriate sexual chats with people they were not supposed to.'
Critics claim the internet tempts the weak to cheat on their partners, while suspicious spouses turn to the web to find evidence of unreasonable behaviour, from flirting to full-blown affairs.
Companies are also cashing in with software which allows customers to spy electronically on their partners.
Karen Moores, at Sydney Mitchell Solicitors, said: 'Over the last five years there has been a definite rise in the number of internetrelated divorces, and increasingly so over the last two years.
'It started off with Friends Reunited where people were hooking up with exes from their school days, arranging to meet up and then starting affairs.
'Now it's Facebook, with people discovering their partners emailing or pictured with other people, or on websites that they really shouldn't.
'And we've often found it's not necessarily the wife or husband who has discovered their errant partner's wrongdoing.
'It's the friend of a friend who you added 12 months ago and forgot about, who then says "you'll never guess what I found your husband doing with my friend".
'The internet is very dangerous and people are deeply complacent about their privacy. If I was up to anything, I would never do it anywhere near the internet.'
Around 14million Britons are believed to use social networking sites regularly.
Last year a 28-year-old woman, from Newquay in Cornwall, ended her marriage after discovering her husband had been having a virtual affair in cyberspace with someone he had never met.
Amy Taylor split from David Pollard after discovering he was sleeping with an escort in the game Second Life, a virtual world where players reinvent themselves.
The divorce rate has fallen in recent years, but two in five marriages are still failing, according to statistics.
The online temptationsEmma Brady only discovered her husband wanted a divorce after he posted a message on Facebook reading: 'Neil Brady has ended his marriage to Emma Brady.'
Mrs Brady claims she had no idea he even wanted a divorce and only found out when a friend, who read the post on the social networking website, rang to console her.
To make matters worse, she also discovered someone else had commented her husband was 'better off out of it'.
'The first I knew about it was when I received a phone call at work from my best friend, who lives in Denmark,' said the 35-year-old conference organiser.
'She asked me if I was okay. I was shell-shocked. I have had people who I haven't spoken to for years contacting me asking what is going
'I only joined Facebook because the girls at work said it was good fun.'
Mrs Brady, from Accrington, went on: 'I asked Neil if he had anything to tell me and he simply said no.
'He acted like everything was fine so we carried on as normal.'
The couple's six-year marriage limped on for another five months and finally disintegrated after a row just before Christmas last year.
Mr Brady later pleaded guilty in court to assaulting his wife by throwing her out of the house.
He was fined £580 and ordered to pay £100 compensation.
The 39-year-old IT consultant, who is now living with his mother, claims he talked to his wife about separation and insisted: 'I'd had enough of her.'
source: dailymail
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