The impact of social networking sites on court suppression orders is likely to be discussed by the nation's Attorneys-General.

The identity of a man accused of murdering three family members at Kapunda last week was suppressed in court on Wednesday, but many people knew more details from postings on the social networking site, Facebook.

South Australia's Attorney-General John Rau says he will consider taking up the issue with his colleagues when they next meet, as it is an issue which goes beyond individual borders.

"Australian law does not purport to apply outside of the commonwealth so we might even be into the realm of international agreements or UN governance about things that go on on the internet," he said.

"I think that goes way, way beyond anything a state attorney can aspire to."

Mr Rau said it was vital that court suppressions were not compromised.

"There are many times when police for very good operational reasons do not want details about a suspect or a name of a suspect out in the marketplace and if it gets out it can compromise an investigation and mean that criminals who otherwise might be caught are not," he said.

Police said information posted on social networking sites could both help or hinder investigations.

Assistant Commissioner Grant Stevens said a balance needed to be struck in dealing with any challenges posed by websites.

"It's a reality with any new technology including social networking that it presents challenges for law enforcement, but in addition to presenting challenges it also provide opportunitites for expanding our investigative processes, finding further information, getting to the bottom of crimes that we might not normally receive information on," he said.

"We don't specifically monitor sites unless we have information about a crime being committed. It's about identifying where there's a need for us to intervene or examine what's occurring and act in those cases."

Law Society president Ralph Bonig said courts needed to look at publishing suppressions more widely.

"As I understand it, the courts administration keep a register of suppression orders but that's only available to the public during office hours," he said.

"So how would a member of the public know, for instance if they wanted to go on Facebook, that there was a suppression order in relation to this particular matter?"

The Federal Government says it is developing a system to publish suppression orders more widely.