“Lawyers hope to excavate information on lifestyle, relationships…, whereabouts — mentions of affairs or parties, say; money spent on gifts, lavish purchases or trips; photos of a parent smoking or drinking. In a custody or settlement case, such information can be used to show financial resources, state of mind, even lack of fitness to parent….

“It’s one thing to lose your head in an update,” Ms. Fortini writes, “it’s something else to lose your children because of it.”Closer to home, I was actually sitting in on the work of a colleague when she unwittingly outed a client via Facebook mention. Her intent was to credibly share cautionary (if not deeply embarrassing) details, but stop short of saying so much than identity would be revealed. But she unwittingly said this: “Thankfully the individual had this ability to reach out to me with a ‘Friend Request’ last Thursday.” Cover blown — since this divorce counselor routinely Friends her clients and colleagues, and her Wall showed only one Friend added on the Thursday in question.

Scripture sets the standard for friendship at Proverbs 17:17, where it says, “A friend loveth at all times.” So it makes sense that those responsible for marketing and building traffic on social media would co-opt the word as a way of encouraging affiliation among its members. Your “Friends” count then becomes a metric of status.

But I wouldn’t put the roof over my head or my son’s welfare at risk for one of these point-and-click relationships.

After all, who knows which of ’em might be a social networking technology in disguise?