Over recent months Facebook has become a scapegoat for just about anything bad in this world so it is no surprise it is now being blamed for marital breakdowns as well. Divorce lawyers claim almost one in five divorce petitions cited Facebook as evidence of infidelity, flirting or some other reason for divorce.

Mark Keenan, Managing Director of Divorce-Online, said the most common reason for using Facebook as evidence in the messy proceedings came down to people having inappropriate sexual chats with someone "they were not supposed to."

"I decided to see how prevalent it was I was really surprised to see 20 per cent of all the petitions containing references to Facebook," said Keenan.

But it's not just real affairs that can lead to a divorce. Some marriages broke down because spouses had sexy chats with persons they never actually met, and one 28-year-old woman dumped her hubby after learning he was sleeping with an escort in Second Life. To top it all off, a 35-year-old woman even learned her husband was divorcing her on Facebook and this is, well, just plain low and rather disturbing.

On another note, Keenan expects divorce rates to skyrocket in 2010 due to the recession. So don't be surprised to see a Facebook message reading: "Honey, we had a good ride, but I have to restructure and lower my operating costs, you and the dog are now redundancies."