B (Capacity: Social Media: Care and Contact) [2019] EWCOP 3

​The court was required to make a range of capacity decisions in relation to the P's capacity to litigate in the proceedings, to manage her property and affairs, to decide where she resides, to decide on her package of care, to decide with who she has contact, to use the internet and communicate by social media and to consent to sexual relations.

The main issues to be determined in this judgment were whether the P had capacity to communicate via social media and to consent to sexual relations. The P’s social media activity had, over the last three years, caused repeated concern to her adult social care workers. She had been known to send intimate photographs of herself, and to communicate her address and other personal information about herself, to male strangers. In relation to sexual activity, the court had to decide whether the P understood the risk of pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases.

The court ruled that the P lacks capacity in relation to her decisions to use social media for the purposes of developing or maintaining connections with others and in relation to her ability to consent to sexual relations. The court made an interim declaration under section 48 MCA 2005 , directing a programme of work to offer her practicable help in these areas.

Read the full text of the judgment on Bailii