Mom Allowing Daughter Unsupervised Internet Not Grounds for Change

Tennessee child custody modification case summary.

Mark Antonio Allen v. Candy Rachelle Munn Allen

The mother and father of two children in this Shelby County, Tennessee, case were divorced in 2010.  Under the original parenting plan, the father was named the primary residential parent, and the mother was granted 160 days per year of unsupervised visitation.  In 2014, the father asked the court to restrict the mother’s parenting time to supervised visitation only.  When that motion was filed, the husband’s attorney approached the trial court with an ex parte affidavit from the daughter’s psychologist.  According to the affidavit, the mother was assuring the daughter that they would be moving together to Atlanta.  It also alleged that the mother was allowing the daughter unsupervised access to the internet and that the daughter was posting age-inappropriate materials online.  After reviewing the affidavit, the trial court granted a temporary injunction requiring supervised visitation.  The court also ordered an independent evaluation of the mother.  The evaluator concluded that the mother was capable of caring for the children without supervision.  Nonetheless, the trial court set a permanent parenting plan that decreased the mother’s parenting time and made it supervised only.  The mother then appealed to the Tennessee Court of Appeals.

The appeals court began by noting that any change in custody arrangements requires a showing of a material change of circumstances.  Then, the change must be in the child’s best interests.  It was this second factor to which the appeals court devoted most of its analysis.

The trial court had based its ruling on its concern about the children being exposed to the dangers of the internet.  In particular, it noted that the mother had posted a picture of one of the children on social media, which the court called poor judgment and poor impulse control.

The appeals court noted that supervised visitation is limited to situations that are likely to endanger the child.  The appeals court agreed with the mother that the allegations in this case did not rise to that level.  For that reason, the Court of Appeals vacated the changes to the parenting plan.  The appeals court also reversed the award of attorney fees to the father, but declined to award attorney fees to the mother for the appeal.

The Court of Appeals concluded by reinstating the original parenting plan and assessing the costs of the appeal to the father.

No. W2016-01078-COA-R3-CV  (Tenn. Ct. App. Mar. 7, 2017).

See original opinion for exact language.  Legal citations omitted.

To learn more, see Modifying Custody & Parenting Plans.

See also Tennessee Parenting Plans and Child Support Worksheets: Building a Constructive Future for Your Family featuring examples of parenting plans and child support worksheets from real cases available on Amazon.com.