When you and your spouse either chose to recite traditional wedding vows or vows you wrote yourself, you likely took time to consider the meaning and consequences of each of those vows. Much like wedding vows, the individual considerations listed within a divorce settlement need to be treated thoughtfully. If you make your divorce settlement too complex, the construction of it could negatively impact your newly single life. Similarly, if your divorce settlement neglects key considerations, your future could be negatively impacted as well.

One consideration that more and more couples are opting to address within their divorce settlements is social media. Social media accounts, like many Internet assets, are treated as property under the law. As a result, it is important to consider how your divorce will impact these accounts and how these accounts may impact your divorce.

If you and your spouse share social media accounts or intellectual property posted on these accounts, you may need to address how you will divide or otherwise interact with these shared accounts in the future.

Similarly, if you are at all concerned that your spouse may speak negatively of you on social media, you may wish to consider adding a clause to your divorce settlement which indicates that neither of you will speak ill of each other on social media. Given that your professional, educational, parental and social lives may be impacted by negative comments posted by your spouse, this clause may prove invaluable to the possibility of a happy, healthy future.

Source: The Huffington Post, “Why You Need a Social Media Clause in Your Divorce,” Brett Sember, Feb. 26, 2015