Skype Dads

There is an article in the Daily Mail ( Thanks Peter!) that discusses the rise of Dads who now have to resort to seeing their kids on video rather than in person:

The fathers who only see their children on a computer screen: It’s a heartbreaking sign of our times, the divorced dads relying on video calls to keep contact with their children miles away

A landmark legal ruling in 2011 has led to a rapid rise in ‘Skype dads’
Following divorce the dads only see their children via laptops and iPads
With children living half way around the world relationships can suffer

Though heartbreaking, William’s situation is, sadly, not unique. Since a landmark legal ruling in 2011, the phenomenon of ‘Skype dads’ has exploded.

In the case, reported under the headline ‘Let them use Skype’, Britain’s leading family law judge, Sir Nicholas Wall, granted permission for a divorced mother to move to Australia with her two young children, leaving their father in Britain. It seemed the justification was that the father’s relationship with his children wouldn’t be affected, because he could use video calls and instant messaging to keep in touch.

While the invention of FaceTime — the Skype equivalent for Apple devices (both are free) — means more options for long-distance communication, experts raised concerns that the case set a worrying precedent for fathers trying to stop ex-partners fleeing abroad. Communicating over digital devices, they said, was no substitute for face-to-face contact.

Is this just new way for moms to be able to legally take kids away from their dads and move to another area?