Adoption Groups Building Families Via the Internet
Method Provides More Data on Children



by Mark Potok
This article appeared in USA TODAY on Monday, March 18, 1996.

Adoption advocates across the country, working to find permanent homes for thousands of hard-to-place U.S. and foreign children, are trying a new marketing tool.
They're going on the Internet.
This trend started in late 1994, when a Waco, Texas, homemaker became the first to create a computerized photolisting of children up for adoption. Major adoption agencies have since set up listings on the World Wide Web, a global communications network that is part of the Internet.

Texas and New York were the first states to create sites. By April 1, eight Western states will go on line through a photo listing set up by the Denver-based Adoption Exchange, says director Dixie Davis. The states are Colorado, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, South Dakotas, Utah and Wyoming.

"This has the potential to revolutionize adoption," says Gloria Hochman of the National Adoption Center in Philadelphia. "It is going to demystify the process and bring much needed information into the homes of people who are interested in adoption. And we think more people will adopt."

So far, fewer than 20 children have been adopted through the Internet, which allows people to interact with other computer users worldwide. There are 100,000 U.S. children and uncounted foreign children who need permanent families.

"The Internet has changed our lives," says Trish Maskew, of Columbia, Tenn. She found the 8-year-old Vietnamese boy she and her husband are adopting while on the Net. "My neighbors came over and started looking at it and now they're considering a Russian adoption."

Typically, users will find an introductory page on the Internet, which often includes general adoption information. From there they can access the main listings, which contain photos and text descriptions supplied to Net sites by adoption agencies. People who find a child can contact the agencies directly.

Would-be adopters still must go through a social worker's study of their family and meet other requirements to be approved for adoption. But once those steps are completed, the Net listings can make it much easier to find a desired child.

The hundreds of children whose faces may be seen on the Internet generally are not healthy infants who are easy to place. Most are "special needs" children. They are older, have physical, mental or emotional disabilities, are in sibling groups or come from minority cultures. Many are from foreign countries.

"This gives people (visual) access to many children, and maybe they'll think about children they hadn't considered before, " says Ember Stine of the Ethiopia program for Family Connections, a California adoption agency. "It also allows them to look at the information at their leisure."

Still, some worry that posting information about children may create problems. Typically, only a first name or ID number is used. "There are a lot of people surfing the Internet, and not all of them have the best intentions," says Patrick Purtell of the National Council for Adoption. Like Purtell, Robert Ellis Smith, publisher of the Rhode Island-based Privay Journal, thinks the listings have great potential but worries about abuse. Besides the dangers of stalking or abductions if kids are identifiable, he says some people could download and alter photo images.

But none of that bothers Julie and Joe Fugazzi. The Independence, Ky., couple spent years struggling with infertility treatments before going on line last fall. There, they found the "Precious in HIS Sight" listing run by Annette Thompson in Waco. The site includes kids from several international adoption agencies.

The Fugazzis took their South Korean son home Feb. 11, six weeks after spotting him on the Internet.

"Joe was always playing on the computer, and it drove me totally bananas," says Julie Fugazzi, 27. "But I guess I can't complain about it any more. I never dreamed we'd find our child on a computer."

Some Internet Adoption Sites
Send comments and suggestions to:annette@precious.org
Return to the main page of the photolisting.
You can check out my personal home page.