Photolistings: Are They Ethical and Beneficial? - by David Kruchkow

     The Internet is populated with photolistings of children allegedly available for adoption. Is this a way to unite waiting children with families or is it a way for unethical agencies and facilitators to play on the heartstrings of prospective adoptive parents, and roping them into a scam? In this article, I will attempt to answer this question and look at the good, the bad and the ugly side of photolistings.

     Personally, I am categorically opposed to all photolistings. All one has to do is look at real estate listings or visit cars.com or autotrader.com to see how children are being marketed and merchandized like real estate and cars. There has to be a better way. Let me just add that I do respect and understand those who claim that they found 'their child' on a photolisting, and that I do respect and understand those who claim that photolistings help children, especially those who are older and/or with special needs, find homes and families. On my website, www.adoptionagencychecklist.com, I have a page entitled, Photolisitngs and Ethics. It contains the following:

     "What bothers me is how some adoption professionals are using the photolisting capability of the Internet to market and merchandise children. These photolistings can easily become a tool of the unscrupulous and unethical to victimize children and adoptive families. A family that is desperate to parent and adopt easily bonds with the right photo and becomes hooked and blinded."

What I, and too many others, have seen over the years is that photolistings, whether on individual agency websites or on clearinghouse type sites, are often of children who are either not available for adoption or have already been referred to a family. Many children are listed as available through more than one agency, creating confusion. Many photolistings are old and outdated, and are being used by the unethical agencies in "bait and switch" tactics. One of the worst things I've seen are sites that feature pictures of storks carrying babies with the announcement that new babies are arriving soon. When last I looked, it wasn't possible to adopt an unborn child internationally yet. These deplorable practices must be stopped, but until they are, photolistings will leave a string of families who are victimized both financially and emotionally but the unscrupulous criminals inhabiting the underbelly of the adoption industry.

     What can a prospective adoptive family do to protect themselves from the pitfalls of photolistings? On my aforementioned web page, I state: "All too often, I am asked about a particular agency, frequently a disreputable one, because the prospective adoptive family was drawn to the photo of a child that the agency had posted on the Internet. I have to tell these families that a good agency should lead them to a child. A photo of a child should not lead them to the agency. They should be shopping for agencies, not children."

     A big red flag is if you contact an agency, inquiring about a photolisted child and they offer to hold the referral for you with your completed application and the payment of a significant portion of their fees. Recently I was contacted by a family who thought that they were adopting a sibling group from Colombia. Six thousand dollars and several months into the process with one of the larger agencies, they learned that another family, working with another large agency, was adopting the same children. This happened because the children were photolisted with multiple agencies simultaneously. The same scenario is repeated many times over every year. Is this ethical? Think about this: If you are not paper-ready, how ethical is it to be offered and accept a referral? Isn't the goal of adoption to place a waiting child in a permanent home and family as soon as possible? Doesn't putting a child 'on hold' while you embark on the paper chase cause the child to await placement that much longer? Couldn't that child have found a home sooner with a family that was already paper ready? What about the potential harm to the child and missed opportunities for placement should you either not be approved or change your mind? Remember, you have no claim on a child as yours until all the paperwork is final.

     Is there a good side to photolistings? Many would say yes. Many would claim that their children would not have found their families without photolistings. Many would claim that without photolistings, that children who are older and/or who have special needs may never find homes and families. While I don’t agree with these claims, I'm willing to make concessions and since it appears as if photolistings are going to be around for some time to come, my web page , www.adoptionagencychecklist.com, makes the following proposal for ethical photolistings:

1. They should make every reasonable effort to fully protect the full identity, privacy and specific location of both the listed child and that child's biological family.
2. They should be accessible only to immediate family members of prospective adoptive parents (PAP's), who have a completed and approved homestudy, via a password protected, secure site or similar secure access method. The PAP's who are given access to the photolisting page(s) should understand that giving access to unauthorized persons outside their immediate family should be prohibited and should result in loss of access to the photolistings.
3. Photolistings where the same child or children are listed by more than one agency or other placement service should be prohibited.
4. Any type of photolisting that is deemed to be advertising, marketing and/or brokering children, or that encourages PAP's to engage in 'shopping' for a child, should be prohibited.
5. Photolistings that conceal, mislead or otherwise give false information about a child's background, medical, psychological or other pertinent information should be prohibited.
6. Any site that charges PAP's a fee to view photolistings should be prohibited.

     We never looked at photolistings during our adoption journey, mainly because there weren't many available, we did not know they existed (other than the NY State 'blue book' of available children), and the Internet wasn't as accessible as it is today. Yet, we immediately bonded with the photos of our first referral our agency sent us. We made enlargements, hung them up and shared them with family and friends. The emotional devastation that the loss of that referral inflicted hardened us. Yet, it really wasn't any easier accepting the loss of our second referral. Our only consolation was that we later learned what became of that second child, and our family and her family became and have remained friends. We still wonder about the fate of the first child. When we received photos of our third referral, I insisted on meeting her in the flesh before accepting her, as photos had become unreal to me. My point is that there is enough potential for emotional pain even without photolistings that they add another area where you must exercise emotional and financial caution in the adoption process.

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