Child Custody for the Information Age: Virtual Visitation

Modern custody agreements, like modern parents, are adapting to the smartphone culture faster than the law can keep up. For example, many modern custody agreements now offer a section referring to ‘virtual visitation’ in the same terms that normal physical visitation is. The courts in general support this idea, as it’s generally considered to strengthen the relationship between the noncustodial parent and the child.

Virtual visitation is exactly what it sounds like: time set aside for a parent and child to interact online. Most often, it’s via Skype, Facetime, or some other form of video chat, but for parents with limited access to that kind of technology, it can just as easily be via text chat or even “just” time on the phone. Virtual visitation is usually scheduled just like physical visitation, but it’s important to note that it can never be scheduled in the place of physical visitation.

Even if the parents agree that it would be best for them, the law doesn’t see virtual visitation as qualifying as ‘parenting time.’ It’s an additional method for the noncustodial parent to be able to interact with their child, which is great, but it’s no substitute for hugs and high-fives. The reason that it appears on the formal visitation plan at all is to ensure that the custodial parent actually sets aside time and resources to allow their child the additional contact with their other parent.

Virtual visitation has a lot of potential uses as well: The noncustodial parent can use virtual visitation to:

• Help the child with their homework using screen-sharing program,
• Attend a child’s special event virtually using tools borrowed from the teleconferencing world,
• Play games with their child online, cooperatively, to build a shared context and develop a sense of teamwork,
• Read the child a bedtime story,
• Or any number of other important parental interactions that might not otherwise have been possible.

Michigan Law on Virtual Visitation is Still Pending

There was an attempted to introduce Virtual Visitation into law in Michigan in 2007, but the bill that was proposed was never taken to a vote. It sits with hundreds of other proposed laws in limbo until some legislator with a reason starts flogging it again. But the Michigan courts seem to largely have taken up the most common nationwide view on virtual visitation: that it is a useful tool that simply needs to be watched carefully to ensure that neither parent comes to think of it as a replacement for actual parenting time.

In particular, a few cases from other states have shown that some custodial parents are willing to use the existence of virtual visitation to ask for permission to move to a place distant from the noncustodial parent — something normal visitation does not allow for. That’s not a valid argument in our opinion: physical parenting time is essential for the child, and one parent’s desire to move away doesn’t take away the other parent’s legal right to physically be with their child. No amount of computer time can change that.

Outside of that one case, however, virtual visitation is an excellent way to adopt evolving technology into the parent-child relationship. Our hope is that it won’t take too long for the laws that surround those relationships to catch up.

If you feel like your child could benefit from having virtual visitation added to your custody agreement, call Gucciardo Family Law today at  248-723-5190. We can help you introduce the idea to your spouse and a judge.