Blaming the Messenger

By Amanda Ripley

The twins at the center of the raging international custody battle were quickly christened the "Internet Babies"--as if they were actually birthed by that great mother of modernity, the Net. But as tempting as it is to blame technology for the mess, it just isn't so.

True, both parents found the twins' questionable "broker" on the Internet. And they're not the first couples to get ensnared by one of the many enticing online advertisements for adoption facilitators. But before the Web, there were heart-wrenching ads in phone books and newspapers. And there was fraud too. "Abuse in adoption is not new, and it's not caused by the Internet," says Gloria Hochman of the National Adoption Center, based in Philadelphia. "It's caused by the fact that there are many more people who want healthy babies than there are babies." The Internet has made the adoption world more efficient, for ill and for good. It's now easier for con artists to appear respectable with fancy sites, but it's also easier to legitimately match parents and children worldwide. The Web is especially helpful in finding homes for disabled and older kids, who are generally harder to place. In the past six months, 101 such kids were adopted after being seen on the National Adoption Center's site. Forty-seven states maintain their own sites with photos of children needing homes. But even with the Internet, there is no magic stork. Parents still have to go through home visits and extensive interviews. If sites promise otherwise, says Hochman, click off.

--By Amanda Ripley