Social networking sites ‘a home wrecker’

KUALA LUMPUR - Online social networking sites may help you find new friends or partners but they have also become a breeding place for divorces.

Marriage counsellor Yvonne Lee said the Internet has been named as one of the reasons for divorces of late.

“The Internet can trigger marital problems or worsen a couple’s existing problems. It has opened up more choices for those looking for partners, regardless of whether they are single or married,” the Star Online quoted Lee as saying.

Lee said that while the Internet could be one of the causes for divorce, it was still the quality of the relationship that determined the outcome of a marriage.

A victim of an ‘online’ affair, Ann discovered that her husband, Jason, had registered himself with some foreign matchmaking and social networking websites to meet other women.

“I thought Jason was having an affair with a woman from China but apparently there were several of them,” she said, adding that they would exchange vicarious sex talk and even nude pictures online.

Jason, an engineer, has since left his wife and two children for a married woman he befriended online.

But it is not the husbands who cheat all the time.

Susan, a mother of a 12-year-old girl shocked her husband recently- she wanted a divorce to marry a Frenchman she met on Facebook.

Consultant psychologist Valerie Jaques said most couples that cited Internet love affairs as the reason for divorce were already facing some problems.

“A lonely person who receives attention via the Internet or face-to-face will be extremely vulnerable, and this can develop into a more serious relationship,” said Jaques.People fall for nice words. Lonely people will be more vulnerable to nice but empty promises,” Jaques added. (ANI)