If you haven’t heard, Kanye West and Kim Kardashian are going through divorce and custody proceedings. Kanye has raised the argument on Twitter, that his shared legal custody allows him to deny access to social media, specifically TikTok, for their oldest child, who is 8, while in the custody of Kim. Kim states because she has primary custody, there is no issue because the use is supervised by an adult. While I can’t speak about how it will turn out in their case, in this article I am going to attempt to show how this will play out in a normal custody case in Pennsylvania.
In a normal custody case in Pennsylvania, the custody order is split into two parts, physical and legal custody. Physical custody relates to who can physically place their hands on the child at any given period, for instance, a week-on week-off shared physical custody schedule will have the child living with Mother for one week, then Father the next week, and alternate between the two going forward. Legal custody in PA, on the other hand, is defined as “the right to make major decisions on behalf of the child, including, but not limited to, medical, religious and educational decisions.” In a large majority of cases, while physical custody can be any number of scenarios, both parents are usually granted shared legal custody and the right to join in making major decisions on behalf of the child.
If both parents have shared legal custody, in accordance with the custody order, they should be sharing in making major decisions, including but not limited to the following:
- Where is the child going to school?
- Which doctor will they go to?
- Should they get a tonsillectomy or any other major non-emergency surgery?
- Which religion, if any, will they subscribe to growing up? Where is the religious building located?
- What after-school activities will they be involved in? Does it impede your physical custody time?
So the question falls, is a parent allowing a child to use social media considered a “major decision” in the view of the court. In most cases, the answer is no, it isn’t, the court has historically stated, “a decision involving a child’s use of social media on the internet is not a matter of the greatest importance” See J.S. ex rel. Synder v. Blue Mountain School Dist., 650 F.3d 915, 934 (3rd Cir. 2011).
However, any decision of custody is usually decided in the best interests of the child. If the use of social media by the child is not in the child’s best interests this could create a right to restrict it, but it will be an uphill battle with the courts, as they tend not to get involved in the minutiae of parental decisions by one or the other party. As such Kanye would probably have no right to object in Kim’s decision to allow TikTok for their child with parental supervision on her time if his custody battle was in Pennsylvania. Alternatively, he could restrict it while the child is with him without Kim’s input.
