Virtual Visitation During COVID-19 Pandemic

During this unprecedented time of social distancing and shelter in place orders, staying in contact with your children is more important than ever. “Virtual visitation,” as the term implies, is a form of child visitation that requires the use of technology to keep in contact with a child. This type of visitation may include email, video conferencing, video mail, and instant messaging.

Virtual Visitation Laws

“Internet visitation” or “electronic visitation” is still relatively new, but growing in popularity as video calling becomes the norm. Several states, including Texas, Utah, Wisconsin, Illinois, North Carolina, and Florida, have enacted laws allowing courts to order online or electronic visitation in custody matters. Legislatures in many other states are currently considering passing such laws. In California there is no specific provision for this type of visitation but should be requested and included as part of a parenting agreement or child custody order.

Virtual visitation may also be an option in many states which don’t yet have specific laws on the books. In many states which have not passed specific legislation, family courts have ruled in favor of using technology to extend parental visitation rights.

Virtual visitation laws are meant to supplement, not replace, traditional in-person parent-time. These laws generally require each parent to: Permit and encourage virtual visits; Make them reasonably available; and allow uncensored communication with the child.

Although the telephone is still the easiest and quickest way to communicate, the more technologically advanced ways to engage in virtual visits may include standard electronic communication tools (such as email and instant messaging), webcams, video conferencing (Zoom, Skype), private document sites, social media sites (Facebook. Twitter, and Snaptchat), and photo-sharing sites.

Like other child visitation arrangements, courts will consider the best interests of the child in determining whether to allow parent-child virtual visitation. In addition, because it’s so similar to traditional visitation, a court will not likely permit virtual visitation if regular visitation would not have been granted.

Benefits/Drawbacks

There are both benefits and drawbacks to such arrangements. Because of the growing number of divorced parents sharing custody of their children, virtual visitation provides potentially far-reaching benefits to enrich the parent-child relationship. Not only can parents become more involved in their children’s lives, despite the distance, parents and children may arguably become better people.

Some of the examples of how this may be used to benefit the parent-child relationship include:

Reading a child a bedtime story;
Helping with homework or a special project;
Seeing subtle facial expressions of a parent or child, such as a smile or frown;
A child showing a parent missing teeth, an award, or other special accomplishment;
Connecting on social media sites as a way to talk about day-to-day occurrences; and possibly,
Witnessing sporting events, piano recitals, and other events live as they are happening.

On the other hand, while forms of electronic communication may be beneficial in those cases where the non-custodial parent is physically absent, some believe that virtual visitation may be viewed as a replacement, and not supplement, for regular in-person child visits. In addition, some fear that judges may be improperly influenced by parents seeking to move away from the ex-spouse in situations that would not otherwise warrant child custody relocation.

Questions About Virtual Visitation? Contact Tierney Law Group to get answers to your visitation questions.

Technology can help to bridge many gaps, including those between a child and a non-custodial parent. Although nothing is as good as seeing a child in-person, virtual visitation offers the next best thing and is recognized and utilized by many states for both non-custodial parents and even grandparents. You can find out about virtual visitation and other aspects of child custody by contacting Tierney Law Group.