Child Custody

"Single and Custodial Fathers Network"
"Mother-Linc"

NOTE: These sites were reviewed in October 1998. Content & presentation described in this study may have been changed since that time.

In 1997, according to the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics, twenty four percent of children in the United States lived with only their mothers, four percent lived with only their fathers, and four percent lived with neither parent. The percent of children living with two parents has been declining among all racial and ethnic groups. (Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics 1998). Elaine Sorensen, in her Urban Institute paper "Nonresident Fathers: What We Know And What's Left To Learn" reveals some striking contradictions in statistics related to child custody:

Custodial mothers reports are used as a reference point because it is generally believed that their reports of children eligible for child support are more accurate than those of nonresident fathers. Nonresident fathers report a total of 8.6 million children living elsewhere, while custodial mothers report that they have 16.4 million children with a father living elsewhere. This procedure yields 4.3 million nonresident fathers missing, or 44 percent of all nonresident fathers. (1997, 4).

If the discrepancies, confusion and bad feeling that emerge from these statistics are not clear enough, a quick tour through the Web sites related to child custody highlight the anger and frustration in the larger society, glaringly amplified via the Web.

Because more mothers than fathers are given legal custody of minor children in the US, the number of Web sites supporting fathers in this scenario are much larger than those supporting mothers. The built-in legal advantage that the mother seems to possess in many cases limits the need for mothers to communicate widely about this topic. (However, child support enforcement is one of the hottest topics currently aimed at women on the Web). Just as mothers seemed to have an edge in receiving sympathy and resources related to the death of an infant, fathers appear to have the advantage in Web resources for custody battles- and yet this impression may be somewhat misleading. Of all subject areas visited in this study, those related to father custody were far and away the most commercially-oriented, even more so than the recreational/hockey sites produced mainly for merchandising. The vast majority of father custody sites were direct connections to attorney offices, legal conferences and other for-profit businesses: almost none were actually made up of communities of fathers themselves, even if the official site names implied otherwise. "Dads Against Discrimination" and "Fathers Rights Foundation" are simply fund-raising pages with materials and advice for sale.

If Web communication patterns mirror communication patterns in Real Life, men in this situation are definitely given a monetary philosophy: pay for help, hire advisors, use income for power, buy what you need. The most frequently indexed heading under "fathers rights" is "Business and Economies: Business: Law." Opening screens in this topic area are often nothing more than price sheets. More the 90% of the sites indexed in the sifting phase of this study were direct commercial connections, with price tags attached to every item on the screen- and not a support group or toll-free number in sight.

Single and Custodial Fathers Network is maintained by a sociology student in Pennsylvania who had difficulty locating genuine support groups for single and custodial fathers. The site highlights portions of the site owner's doctoral dissertation and includes charts and excerpts from census data. Very little personal data is included (no narratives, photographs, personal responses or opinion). While focusing on "handling" this subject, this site attempts to emotionally connect it's users via built-in communication forms more than any other examined male subject area. Sponsor banners are few. There are forms available for Letters to the Editor and email response. Email subscriptions to an active discussion group are available, and include a digested format, suggesting relatively high use. (Digested newsgroup readings compact a larger number of separate email responses into one "digest", to be downloaded once instead of each message emerging individually. The availability of digested mail usually indicates large numbers of participants.) The home page includes Netiquette suggestions ("Watch how you express your emotions and humor within the mail. Due to the lack of vocal and nonverbal clues to our speech here, we often need something extra to read into a message what was intended"), a formal father-specific research questionnaire, a live chat page connection, a free digital postcard service, an internally supported Web ring with twenty six sites, links to other sites and a fascinating message board, which covers topics including dating, cooking, work, education, time management and parenting issues.

The site is consistent, with a white background, simple black text and bright orange logo headings on every page. There are no photographs, backgrounds, music, artwork or borders but there is use of a simple dark blue and yellow icon of a large human form and a small human form. There is a $20 "membership" fee to subscribe to the paper newsletter but all other items on the site are freely available.

While the overall air of this site is quite professional, the personal peeks in around the corners: most members use abbreviated nicknames and an active core of correspondents recognize each other within the chat and board areas, lending a friendly, supportive atmosphere to an otherwise angry and frustrated topic area. This site seems to support a genuine community of men who are involved in this issue. There were no unrelated commercial vendors, generic legal ads or other interrupting for-profit postings.

Mother-Linc also has a distinctly communal flavor. Maintained by a Texas woman, this is a highly personal site, immediately emotional from the moment the "Mother and Child Reunion" WAV file begins playing. While the "Single and Custodial Fathers" page manages to maintain a tenuous grip on objectivity, "Mother Linc" plunges right into the heart of the matter: "Some of us have had our children torn from us by an unjust court system." (Home page text: "Mother-Linc"). This is a clearly amateur effort, with few exotic design elements: one small heart-line, no borders, simply entered text (all default justified) but plenty of color, several striking photographs of real people (not icons) and haunting electronic music in the background.

The page is composed of fifteen personal page links, and contains nine ways to contact another member (the Non-Custodial Moms Web ring , a guestbook, forms to create a chapter of MotherLInc, email links to three chapters of Motherlinc, a main email list, a monthly email newsletter, a survey (which includes links to Attorney Referral, Child Support Information, Mediation Services, Counseling Referral, Housing, ) an email link to the national coordinator, two academic articles, four divorce-issues sites, and links to several other non-custodial mothers organizational homepages.

Every page of the site has a slightly different background color. Because so many separate personal pages are linked, there is little continuity from page to page. The home page has two large photographs: one of a young boy, looking directly into the camera, and the second, a profile of a woman reading a document while silhouetted against a window. The MontherLinc logo is large and purple, centered between the two photos. There are twelve alternative ways to reach someone at this site, in addition to the pages and links. There are no commercial banners on this page but there are links to two other Web rings.

Both of these site are involved in a highly emotional issue. The emphasis on the mother's page was clearly on revealing each woman's experiences and the efforts of this community to survive and react. While both of the custody sites revealed the anger and frustration of the people in this conflict, the father's site focused on survival and practical, authoritative advice while the mother's page was filled with poetry, artwork and short personal writings deigned to share the emotional trauma of this event.

FINDINGS BY TOPIC:

BEREAVEMENT

Each site was analyzed using a spreadsheet constructed of major points in the Sun MicroSystems "Writing for the Web" checklist (See Appendix B for the site analysis spreadsheet found here) The sites were compared on the basis of content (purpose, audience, technical specificiations, interactivity and theme) and design elements (layout, graphics, text, effects and navigation.) The results by topic are detailed individually.

Last Updated: April 1999
Copyright © 1999 Tami Sutcliffe
All rights reserved.
Watercolours by Manette Fairmont: "Tuscany" 15x15 and "Field of Angels" 15x15
Courtesy of Left Coa

Last Updated: April 1999
Copyright © 1999 Tami Sutcliffe
All rights reserved.