Skype, Facebook, Twitter, You Tube, whiteboard, Flickr, e-mail, texting, instant messaging – these are only a few of the ways that people stay in touch via the internet. It seems like the telephone has become old-fashioned and outdated. In long distance parenting relationships, it is easier than ever before to stay involved in the day-to-day activity of the child.

Brian and Kathy are the parents of Larry but they have never been married to each other. Brian lives in the Great Britain but Kathy and Larry moved back to Texas a year ago. Brian visits with Larry weekly using Skype. Since Brian is a math-whiz and Kathy dislikes the math homework, Brian often helps Larry do his math homework using a whiteboard website during his Skype visits. Brian gets to see Larry in person in the summer and on holidays. But, without electronic visitation, his relationship with Larry would be much more tenuous.

Electronic communication gives parents and children a way to creatively structure parenting time when face-to-face meetings will not work. It allows for flexibility in accounting for busy schedules. Using Skype, a long-distance parent can see a child’s condition in real time. Using whiteboard or instant messaging, a parent can help with homework. You Tube, Flickr, and Facebook allow for almost instant exchange of pictures or video of a child’s activities. Teenagers might post frequent short updates as to their activities or feelings via Twitter.

The Texas Legislature saw the value in electronic visitation, endorsing frequent contact between parents and children by telephone, electronic mail, instant messaging, videoconferencing, or webcam as early as 2007. At the time, Texas was only the third state to move to the age of the internet. Texas Family Code provision entitled “Electronic Communication with Child by Conservator” sets out the specifics for electronic visitation. Tex. Fam. Code 153.015. Divorcing parents can agree, or, under this section of the Family Code, courts can order “reasonable periods of electronic communication with the child to supplement the parent’s period of possession.

In determining whether to order an electronic communication schedule, including a schedule for telephone access, courts consider three things:
1. whether electronic communication is in the best interest of the child;
2. whether equipment necessary to facilitate the electronic communication is reasonably available to all parties subject to the order; and
3. any other factor the court considers appropriate.

If the court awards a conservator periods of electronic communication with the child, the parents will be required to provide each other with the children’s e-mail address and other information necessary for electronic access; notify each other within 24 hours when the child’s e-mail address of other information changes; and accommodate electronic visitation with the child at reasonable times with the same privacy, respect, and dignity accorded to all form of access, including physical possession.

Practically, the electronic communication schedule could allow the long-distance parent to communicate with the child via e-mail, then designate a period during which the parent would have access to the child via webcam or Skype. Telephone access schedules are also very common, designating a set time or range of time during which the parent not in possession will be allowed to call the child. It is important to consider the child’s schedule when setting a telephone access or electronic visitation schedule.

"Internet communication fosters a meaningful opportunity for communication between parent and child, when traditional means of access would not," says Michelle May O’Neil, . "But, the law requires the long-distance parent to be given that time without interference or hovering by the other parent."

"I have one case where the father travels on business a great deal and misses out on some of the important parenting time with his daughter," recounts O’Neil. "He visits with her via Skype from almost anywhere, airport, hotel room, even dinner meetings."

A New York judge last week permitted a mother to move from New York to Florida with her children, over the father’s objection, but the judge required the mother to provide, at her expense, the necessary equipment to allow the father to Skype with the children at least 3 days per week. (Debra Baker v. James Baker, 29610-2007, NYLJ 1202464436957, at *1 (Suffolk Cty. Sup., August 4, 2010.)

While convenient and potentially cost-efficient, it is clear that electronic visitation and/or telephone access are not intended as a substitute for actual physical possession of the child. Telephone access and electronic visitation are instead a means of supplementing physical possession, facilitating the connection between the child and the long-distance parent.