Facebook has revolutionised online social interaction and communication. The high level of engagement possible with others around the globe has been one of the major driving factors behind the perpetual ascendancy of the social network’s popularity. While bringing people together it has however also started to tear people apart. As more and more people join the website and more and more mutual friend links develop it becomes increasingly difficult to conceal your activities: whether innocent and innocuous or somewhat more seedy and sinister.

Anyone who has been ‘tagged’ in a somewhat unflattering photograph will be more than aware that Facebook isn’t always your friend when it comes to concealing the more embarrassing moments captured on film. In fact ‘removing tags’ is high on the priority list of many regular Facebook users: particularly following instances of indiscriminate photo uploading by unscrupulous friends. There is however always that gap between the time when a photograph is assigned to an individual and the point when they login, realise they’ve been tagged and promptly remove all evidence. For those dabbling in infidelity, this gap can be relationship destroying.

Being ‘caught with your pants down’ by Facebook is extremely hard to prevent: although a picture may seem innocuous enough to the individual uploading it to the website, they may be unaware of the repercussions. Allied with the danger of having unexpected ‘mutual friends’ and the attention this draws to inexplicable connections: the cheat-catching power of photo tagging makes it seem as though Facebook is in the midst of a war with infidelity...however absurd that may sound.

If you will insist on playing with fire and doing things which could potentially prove disastrous to your relationship, then it’s essential that extreme caution is exercised when it comes to social networking. The first port of call when proofing yourself against Facebook-based relationship disaster is ‘privacy settings’ in the ‘account’ menu of the website. Check and double check that only those people you want to have access to various parts of your profile do have access and while you’re there make sure that those individuals who aren’t your Facebook ‘friend’ can’t find out more about you than you’re happy for them to. An additional security measure is to turn on SMS alerts which notify you when you’ve been interacted with: thus acting as a warning system to check that you haven’t been ‘tagged’ in a compromising image. Beyond that, the only solid advice available to those dishonest types out there is to either stop cheating on your other half, or delete Facebook altogether. The first option will probably be easiest on your conscience in the long-run!

Written by Jamie Rock Lyons