Adoptions Are Now Just a Click Away : Internet: Feelings are mixed, however, as some observers fear the downside: Lack of controls can lead to abuses.

Click.

Timor is a cute red-headed little boy from Russia. He has no physical or mental handicaps and single parents will be considered as well as parents over 40.

Click.

Bobby Jo is diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder having to do with past abuse. Bobby Jo would like a two-parent family because she has always wondered what it would be like to have a father.

Click.

Valentina has been diagnosed with alcohol fetopathy, microcephaly and has some psycho-speech delays. She needs a consistent and nurturing family to care for her.

Internet pundits have long promised that one day almost everything would be available online. Maybe they were right. Now via the Internet, you can get a child.

“Our mission is to find a home for these children, and this gives us a whole new world of potential families to tap into,” said Peggy Soule, executive director of Children Awaiting Parents, a Rochester, N . Y . -based nonprofit group that co-sponsors the site Faces of Adoption.

The site currently contains the pictures and descriptions of 69 children eligible for adoption throughout the country.

At least two other sites maintain similar listings. Dare to Love, sponsored by the Texas Adoption Resource Exchange, lists children living in that state. And Precious in HIS Sight, which takes its title from the lyrics of the song “Jesus Loves the Little Children,” was created by a woman in Waco, Tex., to provide photo listings of hundreds of adoptable children living outside the United States.

These sites are available to anyone who has access to the World Wide Web on the Internet, which allows you to use your mouse to click through page after page of listings. It can be a heartbreaking task. These sites exclusively feature children who have, in the terminology of the adoption community, special needs.

“They are older than the children most people want to adopt, or they have disabilities,” said Marianne Clarke, executive director of the National Adoption Center in Philadelphia, the other sponsor of Faces of Adoption. “Maybe they have a brother or sister that has to be adopted along with them, or are from a minority culture. Whatever the reason, it’s not always easy to find families for them.”

Derrick, born April, 1980, continues to look for a forever family who is flexible, compassionate and patient. Derrick has spent most of his life in foster care. He enjoys bike riding, sports, Nintendo games and summer camp. Derrick functions in the moderately mentally disabled range.

The National Adoption Center was founded in 1972 with the aim of putting special-needs children and families together. “We started with a recipe box and 3-by-5 cards,” said Clarke of the nonprofit organization that now has about 30 full-time staffers. It took a first step into the computer world several years ago when it began listing children, without pictures, on a computer bulletin board that could be accessed by adoption professionals.

Children Awaiting Parents began in 1969 with the aim of publishing a national photo listing in book form of special needs children.

To get on the Internet, the groups combined forces to obtain a two-year, $300,000 grant from the federal Department of Health and Human Services, plus a $50,000 contribution from the Dave Thomas Foundation. Their Internet site went online in August.

Information and pictures of the listees come from adoption agencies. “We get special permission from them to put their children on the Internet,” Soule said. “The children have to have special needs, be eligible for adoption and be free to be placed across state lines.”

She said some agencies have expressed concerns about privacy issues. “That’s why we use no last names, no addresses for the children.” A prospective parent who contacts the organizations about a listing is put in touch with the adoption agency or social worker handling that specific child. The caller pays no fee for the referral.

No matter how noble the aims of these Internet adoption sites, it’s hard to escape feelings of discomfort when clicking through page after page of the photo listings. Soule agrees and does not shy away from calling it a “catalogue.”

“There is no way around that,” she said. “What we’ve said to people is, ‘If we didn’t have to do this, it would be wonderful. If there was a better way than photo listings to get to the public in hopes of finding homes for these children, we’d do it in an instant.”

Reuben Pannor, the co-author of “The Adoption Triangle” (Anchor Press, 1978) and a prominent figure in adoption circles, recognizes the value of the Internet listings--within limits.

“I have mixed feelings,” he said from his home in Los Angeles. “The positive part is that these children need to find homes, and this could help. But I think there is a big downside we have to recognize. All kinds of abuse are possible.”

He said that if organizations such as NAC and CAP are using the Internet simply to refer prospective parents to legitimate agencies, it’s probably no problem.

“But anyone can get on the Internet with anything,” he said. “There are no controls, no regulations. And that’s the danger. Anyone could put up pictures of children and say they are for adoption, and who knows what really goes on, especially with children who are going to need ongoing medical care, emotional counseling, all kinds of things. . . . We’re not selling cars, we’re dealing with children. There has to be some kind of controls.”

As legislators who have made Internet content a political issue have learned only too well, regulating the wild and woolly Internet is far from a simple matter.

Organizations can exercise a form a self-control by using passwords to open their sites only to legitimate, prospective parents. But Clarke said this would eliminate one of the most important benefits of Internet listings.

“We’ve gone on television with children and then hear from people who say, ‘We did not realize there were so many children waiting for families. We would have come forward sooner.’ I think the same will happen with the Internet.”

Daria is a smiling girl from Russia. She has been living in an orphanage since birth. Daria has arthogryposis, which affects her muscles, joints and cartilage in her legs. Daria is currently walking.

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Adoption SitesFaces of Adoption--https://www.adopt.org/adopt/

Dare to Love--https://www.dhs.state.tx.us/tdprs/homepage.html

Precious in HIS Sight--https://nysernet.org/cyber/adoption/