My ex deletes TikToks after a few days. How fast can I capture?

Install the Chrome or Edge extension (30 seconds), buy a Video SnapPack with any card (under 60 seconds — Stripe Checkout), open the public TikTok or Instagram URL, click capture. First forensic ZIP in your downloads folder within 1–2 minutes. Do not wait for the lawyer; the lawyer will thank you for already having the ZIP when they sit down with you. Credits are valid 12 months — buy ×3 ($59.99) or ×10 ($169.99) if you expect more deletions before the hearing.

Is it legal to capture my co-parent's public TikTok or Instagram?

Capturing publicly posted content from a co-parent's account for use in your own family-court matter is generally permitted in U.S. federal and state law, because public posts have no reasonable expectation of privacy. What is not permitted: hacking, password access, creating a fake friend account to view private content, or recording private direct messages without consent. ProofSnap is a tool, not legal advice — confirm with your attorney before recording. EU users should review GDPR Art. 6(1)(f) (legitimate interest in evidence for legal proceedings) and member-state rules of civil procedure.

What if my ex's account is deleted before the hearing?

Once an account is deleted, you cannot subpoena the content without a court order, which arrives weeks later — by which point platform retention has often expired. Capture *before* the account is deleted, even if the hearing is months away. The ProofSnap forensic ZIP survives platform deletion and account deletion: the SHA-256 hash, blockchain anchor, EU eIDAS qualified timestamp, and signed chain of custody prove the post existed at the captured time even after the original is gone. Allied Concrete Co. v Lester (Va. 2013) imposed $722,000 in spoliation sanctions when a Facebook account was deleted before discovery — courts care about preservation.

How do I respond to a deepfake objection at a custody hearing?

If opposing counsel claims the video is AI-generated, four anchors answer the challenge: (1) SHA-256 hash proves no post-capture alteration — a single bit-flip breaks the manifest signature. (2) OpenTimestamps Bitcoin anchor proves capture date and cannot be backdated without rewriting Bitcoin's proof-of-work. (3) eIDAS qualified timestamp from a Qualified Trust Service Provider on the EU Trusted List shifts the burden of disproof to the opposing party under Regulation (EU) 910/2014 Art. 41(2). (4) Provenance Certificate runs 8 integrity checks at capture time (device fingerprint, time consistency, DNS resolution path, TLS handshake, browser process integrity) that AI generators cannot reproduce. Aligned with EU AI Act Article 50 and proposed FRE 707.

Can my family-law attorney use this without forensic-expert testimony?

Yes, in most matters. The whole point of FRE 902(13)/(14) self-authentication is to admit digital records without calling a witness to authenticate. The signed manifest, the OpenTimestamps proof, and the eIDAS qualified timestamp let the ZIP authenticate itself. For high-stakes contested matters — modification of custody, supervised visitation, or termination — your attorney may still retain a forensic expert as belt-and-braces. The expert reviews the same ZIP; ProofSnap shortens, doesn't replace, that engagement, and saves the $300–$700/hour the expert would otherwise bill to authenticate.

How is this different from a notary's constat or a forensic vendor?

A French constat d'huissier (bailiff certificate, now commissaire de justice) costs €250–€600 in 2025 depending on complexity and urgency, and takes days. Page Vault Social Media On-Demand starts at $349 per capture and takes 12–24 hours. ProofSnap Video SnapPack ×1 is $24.99 per capture, instant, and produces a forensic record (URL, hash, blockchain anchor, EU eIDAS qualified timestamp, signed chain of custody) that meets the same authentication standard. The difference is the price point — a parent can afford $24.99; a parent often cannot afford €500 for every TikTok the co-parent posts.

What if my hearing is in Texas / California / Florida / New York?

U.S. state family courts apply state evidence rules — most are patterned on the Federal Rules. Texas Rules of Evidence 902(13) and 902(14) (adopted verbatim from the federal rules), California Evidence Code §1552 (presumption that printed representations of computer information are accurate), Florida Statute §90.902(11) (certified business records), and New York CPLR §4518 (business-records exception, which encompasses electronic records) collectively support admitting digital records produced by an electronic process with a certification of accuracy. The signed manifest, hash, and qualified timestamp in the ProofSnap ZIP map to those state-rule certifications. Your attorney confirms the state-specific declaration language and attaches it to the exhibit.

Does ProofSnap work with Instagram Stories, which vanish in 24 hours?

Yes — and Stories are exactly the case ProofSnap was built for. A Story disappears in 24 hours; if you wait for the lawyer, it is gone. Open the Story in Chrome, click capture, and the ZIP lives on your hard drive forever even after the Story expires from Instagram. Same for Facebook Stories, Snapchat web view, and 24-hour live broadcasts.

How long do Video SnapPack credits last?

12 months from the date of purchase. Each credit covers one capture of up to 30 minutes with tab audio plus one EU eIDAS qualified timestamp. There is no monthly subscription on Video SnapPack — a one-time payment buys a fixed number of credits (1, 3, or 10), and they are spent as you capture. A card is required at checkout. Credits do not transfer between accounts.

Can I download a sample evidence package before paying?

Yes. The same evidence-package format used by the Video SnapPack is available as a sample ZIP at getproofsnap.com/proofsnap-sample-video-package-en.zip. Open it, run the files through the Trust Verifier at getproofsnap.com/verify/index.html, and inspect the manifest, hashes, blockchain anchor, and signature without making an account. Show it to your attorney before you buy.

How do I download a TikTok video for a court hearing?

TikTok's built-in download button strips metadata, embeds a TikTok watermark, and produces an unsigned MP4 that fails FRE 901 authentication. For a court hearing you need the URL, the SHA-256 hash, a tamper-proof signature, and a qualified timestamp — none of which are in the TikTok app download. ProofSnap Video SnapPack opens the public TikTok URL in Chrome, records up to 30 minutes with tab audio, and packages the result as a 14-file forensic ZIP that includes the URL, page source, hashes, blockchain anchor, and EU eIDAS qualified timestamp. The ZIP is what your family-law attorney files as the exhibit.

Can I use a screen recording from my phone as custody evidence?

You can submit a phone screen recording, but it usually fails FRE 901 authentication because it lacks the URL, TLS certificate, hash, and qualified timestamp that family-court judges look for. The bigger problem: the person who pressed Record becomes a chain-of-custody witness, has to take the stand, and is cross-examined on device, software, timezone, and whether anything was edited. A forensic capture under FRE 902(13)/(14) authenticates itself — the parent stays off the stand and the judge weighs the substance, not the parent's credibility about technical detail.

When does the duty to preserve social media evidence begin in a divorce or custody matter?

Under U.S. case law the duty to preserve electronically stored information arises when litigation is reasonably foreseeable — typically when either party consults an attorney, files a petition, or sends a preservation letter, well before the case is filed. Connecticut, California, and most state courts follow this rule. Deleting social-media posts after that point can constitute spoliation under FRCP 37(e), with sanctions ranging from adverse-inference instructions to monetary penalties — see Allied Concrete Co. v Lester (Va. 2013, $722,000 in spoliation sanctions). If you anticipate divorce or custody proceedings, capture the co-parent's relevant social-media posts now, even if you have not filed yet.

What is a spoliation notice for social media in a custody case?

A spoliation notice (also called a litigation-hold letter or preservation letter) is a formal demand sent to the opposing party — and, where appropriate, to platforms — to preserve identified social-media accounts, posts, messages, and metadata pending litigation. Your family-law attorney drafts the letter; you supply the URLs, screenshots, and any captures already in your possession. Sending it triggers the opposing party's preservation duty under FRCP 37(e); subsequent deletion exposes them to spoliation sanctions. ProofSnap captures support the notice by proving the post existed at a specific date and time before the demand was made.

What goes in a custody court evidence binder?

A custody court evidence binder typically organizes (1) sworn declarations and pleadings, (2) communications (texts, emails, OurFamilyWizard logs), (3) social-media exhibits with authentication certifications, (4) financial and school records, and (5) third-party reports (police, CPS, GAL). Social-media video exhibits should include the forensic ZIP, the printed evidence.pdf summary, and the FRE 902(13) certification language your attorney prepares. A ProofSnap Video SnapPack capture slots into section 3 as a single sealed exhibit — the judge can re-verify the ZIP in five seconds at getproofsnap.com/verify/index.html if authentication is challenged.

For parents preserving a co-parent's social-media video

Updated 18 May 2026 · Built for U.S. family courts · Self-authenticating under FRE 902(13)/(14)

How to Save a TikTok for Custody Court Before It's Deleted.

You saw the post tonight. By morning it could be gone. Lock the co-parent's TikTok, Instagram Reel, Facebook Live or YouTube video as court-admissible evidence in under 2 minutes. Use it at your custody hearing — this week, next month, or whenever you need it. Credits valid 12 months.

Capture first video — $24.99 Is this the right tool for me? →

Add Chrome extension (30 sec) → sign in → first capture in your downloads folder in 2 minutes. Card required at checkout. One-time payment, credits valid 12 months.

Also on Edge · See a sample evidence ZIP first

ProofSnap Video SnapPack for custody hearings — capture co-parent's TikTok, Instagram, Facebook Live or YouTube video with tab audio, SHA-256 hash, OpenTimestamps blockchain anchor, EU eIDAS qualified timestamp

Quick answer Last updated 2026-05-18

How do I save a co-parent's TikTok or Instagram video as evidence for a custody hearing?

Short answer: To save a TikTok, Instagram Reel, Facebook Live or YouTube video as custody-court evidence, capture the public URL in Chrome with a forensic tool that produces a SHA-256 hash, a blockchain timestamp, and an EU eIDAS qualified timestamp — not a phone screen recording. The hashed, signed ZIP is self-authenticating under FRE 902(13)/(14), so the file proves itself and you don't have to take the witness stand. ProofSnap Video SnapPack does this in under 2 minutes for $24.99 per video.

A phone screen recording usually isn't enough. If opposing counsel challenges it, you have to take the witness stand and explain how you recorded it, what software you used, whether you edited anything, and whether the timestamp is real. The judge ends up weighing your credibility instead of what's actually in the video.

ProofSnap Video SnapPack is a Chrome and Edge extension that captures a public TikTok, Instagram Reel, Facebook Live or YouTube video and packages it as self-authenticating evidence — the file proves itself, so you don't have to. Each capture includes the video (with audio), the page source, a tamper-proof signature, a Bitcoin blockchain timestamp, and an EU qualified timestamp. Anyone — the judge, opposing counsel, your attorney — can verify it in 5 seconds at getproofsnap.com/verify.

$24.99 per video, one-time payment. No subscription. Credits valid 12 months — capture now, even if the hearing is months away. Card required at checkout.

For parents and their family-law attorneys. 81% of top U.S. divorce attorneys have reported a surge in cases involving social-networking evidence (American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers survey); Facebook is cited as the leading source in 66% of those matters.

< 1 min

Capture to ZIP

$24.99

Per video (one-time)

FRE 902

(13)/(14) self-authenticating

81%

AAML attorneys see rise in social-media evidence

SHA-256 hash · OpenTimestamps blockchain anchor · Disig EU qualified electronic timestamp (RFC 3161) · ISO/IEC 27037:2012 chain of custody

Key facts at a glance For citation · updated 2026-05-18

TikTok and Instagram evidence in U.S. custody cases — what the data says

•81% of the nation's top divorce attorneys reported a surge in cases using social-networking evidence over the prior five years (American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers survey), with Facebook as the primary source in 66% of matters. A separate AAML finding: social-media use was cited as a reason for divorce in roughly one in three cases surveyed.
•$722,000 in spoliation sanctions issued in Allied Concrete Co. v Lester (Va. 2013) after a Facebook account was deleted before discovery — the foundational U.S. precedent on social-media spoliation, regularly cited in 2026 family-law preservation orders.
•24 hours retention for Instagram and Facebook Stories. Zero retention for TikTok Live and Instagram Live unless the streamer saves the recording. Reels and YouTube videos can be deleted by the poster at any time, with no platform notice to viewers.
•FRE 902(13) permits self-authentication of records generated by an electronic process or system; FRE 902(14) covers data copied from an electronic device authenticated by a qualified-person certification. Both let a digital file authenticate itself without live-witness testimony. (Cornell LII)
•EU Regulation 910/2014 (eIDAS) Art. 41(2) shifts the burden of disproof to the opposing party for qualified electronic timestamps issued by a QTSP on the EU Trusted List. Every ProofSnap Video SnapPack capture includes one eIDAS qualified timestamp from Disig a.s., a Slovak QTSP.
•$349 starting per capture for Page Vault Social Media On-Demand (Videos On-Demand starts at $299); €250–€600 for a French constat d'huissier in 2025, depending on complexity and urgency. ProofSnap Video SnapPack is $24.99 per video — ~14× price reduction vs Page Vault at the same FRE 902 standard.
•2025–2026 trend: first civil matters where courts identified AI-generated video evidence as fabricated (Mendones v. Cushman & Wakefield, Cal. Super. Ct. Alameda Cty., Sept. 2025). Proposed Federal Rule of Evidence 707 — approved for publication by the Judicial Conference Committee in June 2025 — would subject machine-generated evidence to expert-testimony reliability standards. Captures with cryptographic provenance pre-satisfy the proposed standard.

Who needs this

Credits valid 12 months — capture tonight even if your hearing is months away. See pricing & pack math.

If you're the parent

Co-parent posts. Deletes a day later. Repeat.

Stories vanish in 24 hours. Lives go to zero retention the moment the stream ends. The Reel you saw at 11 p.m. — showing the partner driving with your child loose in the back seat — is tomorrow gone. A screenshot can be called fabricated; a phone screen recording puts you on the witness stand. ProofSnap Video SnapPack captures the post in under 2 minutes, packages it so the file proves itself, and stays valid for 12 months — capture tonight, file it whenever the hearing is.

I'm the family-law attorney, not the parent — show me the FRE 902 angle

Opposing counsel will move to exclude every screenshot under FRE 901. A client's phone screen recording puts the client on the stand. Self-authentication under FRE 902(13)/(14) needs the hash, the qualified timestamp, and the certified process — ProofSnap captures sit on the FRE 902 side of the line.

Each ZIP carries RSA-4096 manifest signature, OpenTimestamps Bitcoin anchor, and an eIDAS qualified timestamp from Disig a.s. (Slovak QTSP on the EU Trusted List). The Provenance Certificate answers a deepfake objection with 8 capture-time integrity checks aligned with EU AI Act Art. 50 and proposed FRE 707.

Disbursement math: ×3 ($59.99) is roughly one paralegal-hour. ×10 ($169.99) is under one hour of a forensic-vendor engagement — the expert reviews the same ZIP rather than authenticating from scratch. For weekly capture cadence see the firm subscription pricing below.

Also useful for guardians ad litem and CASA volunteers reviewing video referenced in pleadings. Cross-reference: Sorgerecht-Beweise (DACH), Prove video affidamento (IT), Preuves vidéo garde d'enfants (FR), Pruebas video custodia (ES), Video Evidence Capture hub.

Six custody scenarios where the video disappears first

Six recurring fact patterns in U.S. family-court custody matters. Each names the clock and the painkiller.

Parent Live = 0 retention

Substance use on TikTok Live or Instagram Live

Clock: the broadcast ends and the recording is gone unless the streamer chose to save it.

Capture in real time. Audio matters here — what is being said is the substance of the exhibit, not the visual. Tab-audio recording (Opus codec) is included with every Video SnapPack credit.

Parent Story = 24 h

Reckless behavior with the child on Reels or Stories

Clock: Stories vanish in 24 hours; Reels can be deleted at any time.

Skateboarding with a toddler on the handlebars, riding in the bed of a pickup, fireworks indoors. Capture before the post is deleted by the co-parent's attorney “cleaning up the feed.”

Parent Account purge risk

New partner with documented history near the child

Clock: social posts get scrubbed once the new partner becomes contested in proceedings.

Court-relevant only where the partner has a record affecting child safety. Capture the public post tying partner-to-child-to-environment before the co-parent's account turns private or is purged.

Attorney Live + audio

Threats or harassment on a Facebook Live or YouTube broadcast

Clock: goes to OFW / restraining-order petition or motion in limine.

The audio is the exhibit. ProofSnap captures the tab audio together with the video, the URL, and the speaker identification, so the audio cannot be challenged as misattributed to the wrong account.

Attorney Impeachment

Lifestyle / travel inconsistent with sworn financial statements

Clock: child support modification, asset-disclosure dispute, or impeachment at hearing.

A Reel from a Maldives resort doesn't match the financial affidavit. Capture before the trip-tagged posts are deleted in advance of discovery responses.

Attorney / GAL Pattern over time

Parental alienation pattern across posts

Clock: ongoing — each post is small, the pattern is the exhibit.

No single post is the case; a sequence of dated, hash-bound captures is. Video SnapPack ×10 ($16.99/video) is the working unit for a contested alienation matter.

What you get: 14 files, three layers

Each Video SnapPack capture downloads as a single ZIP. Three layers — from the source video to the EU eIDAS qualified timestamp and anti-deepfake Provenance Certificate — ready to email to your family-law attorney with no further editing.

The source content

3 files

video.mp4

Up to 30 min, with tab audio

screenshot.jpeg

Full-page screenshot of the post

page.html

Complete page source code

The forensic proof

8 files · what makes the ZIP self-authenticating

metadata.json

URL, headers, TLS, cookies, fingerprint

forensic_log.json

DNS + WHOIS + IP geolocation

chain_of_custody.json

ISO/IEC 27037:2012 log

manifest.sig

RSA-4096 digital signature

Blockchain

manifest.json.ots

OpenTimestamps Bitcoin anchor

eIDAS

manifest.json.tsr

EU qualified timestamp (RFC 3161)

Anti-deepfake

provenance_certificate.pdf

8 integrity checks — EU AI Act Art. 50

evidence.pdf

Human-readable evidence summary

The verification keys

3 files · lets the judge or opposing counsel re-verify

manifest.json

SHA-256 hashes of every file

publickey.pem

RSA-4096 verification key

domtextcontent.txt

Extracted page text (transcript-friendly)

Plus one EU eIDAS qualified electronic timestamp included with every Video SnapPack capture — recognized across all 27 EU member states under Regulation 910/2014.

Capture video now — from $24.99

Download a sample evidence package (ZIP) · verify it at getproofsnap.com/verify

Page Vault alternative for custody cases: 12× cheaper, same standards

Most parents choose between four options. ProofSnap Video SnapPack is the only one that stays under $25 per video while meeting FRE 902(13)/(14) self-authentication — the same evidentiary bar a $349 Page Vault Social Media On-Demand capture or a €250–€600 French constat d'huissier clears.

Feature	DIY screen recording	Notary constat / bailiff	Page Vault	ProofSnap Video SnapPack
Cost per video	Free	€250–€600	From $299–$349	$24.99
Turnaround	Instant	2–7 days	12–24 hours	Instant
Audio capture (tab audio)	Manual	No	Yes	Yes (Opus codec)
SHA-256 hash on every file	No	Manual	Yes	Yes
Blockchain anchor (OpenTimestamps)	No	No	Optional	Included
EU eIDAS qualified timestamp	No	Sometimes	Add-on	1 per video, included
Chain of custody (ISO 27037)	Manual	Yes (notary's record)	Yes	Auto-generated, signed
Parent stays out of chain of custody	No — problem	Yes (notary swears)	Yes	Yes (FRE 902(13))
Works at 11 p.m. on a Tuesday	Yes	No	Yes	Yes

Page Vault pricing: page-vault.com/pricing (verified May 2026). French constat d'huissier reference: Chambre nationale des commissaires de justice.

Holds up when opposing counsel cries “fabricated”

Family-court judges are increasingly familiar with deepfakes and edited video. The four anchors in every Video SnapPack ZIP answer the four questions opposing counsel will raise at a motion in limine.

Q1 · alteration

“The petitioner edited this video.”

A single bit-flip in any file changes its SHA-256 hash. The signed manifest.sig binds every file's hash; if anything is altered, signature verification fails — demonstrably, in front of the judge, with a public RSA-4096 key. The Trust Verifier shows pass/fail in 5 seconds.

Q2 · timestamp

“The petitioner backdated this capture.”

Two independent timestamps. manifest.json.ots anchors the manifest hash to a Bitcoin block (impossible to backdate without rewriting Bitcoin's proof-of-work). manifest.json.tsr carries an EU eIDAS qualified timestamp from Disig a.s. Burden shift: under Art. 41(2), the opposing party must disprove the timestamp.

Q3 · AI-generation

“That's not me — it's AI-generated.”

The Provenance Certificate runs 8 integrity checks at capture time — device fingerprint, time consistency, DNS resolution path, TLS handshake to the platform's actual servers, browser process integrity. AI generators don't produce captures with TLS handshakes to tiktok.com or instagram.com. Aligned with EU AI Act Art. 50 and proposed FRE 707. Exhibit: provenance_certificate.pdf.

Q4 · chain of custody

“The petitioner handled this evidence.”

chain_of_custody.json is generated at capture and signed into the manifest, built to ISO/IEC 27037:2012. Modifying it after capture invalidates the manifest signature. The parent doesn't testify: the file authenticates itself under FRE 902(13)/(14) — the parent stays out of the witness chair.

2026 trend Why this matters now

AI-generated evidence & the “Liar's Dividend” in family court

In Mendones v. Cushman & Wakefield (Cal. Super. Ct. Alameda Cty., Sept. 2025), Judge Victoria Kolakowski dismissed the plaintiffs' case after identifying their video as an AI-generated deepfake presented as authentic testimony — one of the first widely-cited bench identifications of synthetic evidence in U.S. civil litigation. In 2024, Florida nurse Melissa Sims spent two days in jail after her ex-boyfriend allegedly fabricated AI-generated text messages to trigger a no-contact-order violation; the charges were later dropped. Proposed FRE 707 — approved for publication by the Judicial Conference Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure in June 2025, public comment closed February 2026 — would subject machine-generated evidence to expert-testimony reliability standards. The NCSC and California Judicial Council AI Task Force have published bench cards to help judges assess synthetic materials.

The deepfake defense lowers credibility for every real recording — unless the recording carries cryptographic proof of when and how it was captured. A ProofSnap ZIP carries that proof natively (SHA-256 hash, OpenTimestamps Bitcoin anchor, eIDAS qualified timestamp from an EU Trusted List QTSP) and shifts the burden of disproof to the opposing party under eIDAS Art. 41(2). Sources: Thomson Reuters · NCSC.

Honest caveat: in contested modification, supervised-visitation, or termination matters, your attorney may still retain a forensic expert as belt-and-braces. The expert reviews the same ZIP — ProofSnap shortens, doesn't replace, that engagement, and saves the $300–$700/hour the expert would otherwise bill to authenticate.

Video SnapPack — pay-per-use, no subscription

From $24.99 per video

Each credit covers up to 30 minutes of recording with tab audio plus one EU eIDAS qualified timestamp. Credits valid 12 months. Card required at checkout.

Math for a custody matter: a parent typically captures 2–5 videos for an initial hearing — Video SnapPack ×3 ($59.99 · $19.99/video) covers the standard exhibit list. Contested modification or alienation matter → ×10 ($169.99 · $16.99/video).

Video SnapPack ×1

$24.99

$24.99/video

Buy ×1

CUSTODY HEARING PACK

Video SnapPack ×3

$74.97 $59.99

$19.99/video — save 20%

Buy ×3 — $59.99

Video SnapPack ×10

$249.90 $169.99

$16.99/video — save 32%

Buy ×10

Each credit = 1 video capture, up to 30 min, with tab audio, plus 1 eIDAS qualified timestamp. Credits valid 12 months from purchase.

Family-law firm capturing weekly? Subscriptions

Monthly plans cover image and longform-video captures together. 7-day free trial. Card required.

Essential

$8.99/mo

100 captures/mo

11-file evidence package
Video SnapPack stays $24.99/video

Single-attorney, occasional matter

Professional

$16.99/mo

200 captures/mo

12-file evidence package
Blockchain (OpenTimestamps) on every capture
Video SnapPack stays $24.99/video

Active family-law practice

Enterprise

$28.99/mo

Unlimited captures

15-file evidence package
EU eIDAS qualified timestamps on regular captures
Video SnapPack stays $24.99/video

Multi-attorney family-law firm

Annual plans save 20%. See all pricing options