Facebook Connecting Adopted Kids With Birth Parents

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Using Facebook to track down old loves, former classmates or long-lost friends is nothing new, but now the social networking site is being used to connect adopted children with their birth parents.

The New York Times reports the Internet is changing the speed of the search -- which once could take years -- and kids as young as 13 are now being contacted by their birth parents online, sometimes before they even know they were adopted.

"Kids, at the most vulnerable time for developing identity, are plugged in online," Leanne Jaffe, a New York therapist who specializes in adoption, tells the newspaper. "Either they are savvy enough to find their birth parents, or they spend time in places like Facebook, where their birth parents can find them."

Adam Pertman, author of "Adoption Nation," tells "Today" this is a growing trend.

"It can't be stopped," he tells the new show. "Some people like it, some won't like it, but we have to deal with it. We have to understand that this is the future in adoption and we have to set policies and practices accordingly."

Lisa Belkin who wrote the story for The Times, tells "Today" we're the issue deals with an "in-between generation."

"These are kids coming of age right now who have the social media tools were adopted in relatively closed adoptions and are now trying to find their parents in a very open era and so it's shifting," she tells the show. "The sands are shifting as we speak. ... I don't think the answer is more protection, I thi! nk the a nswer is more openness."

What do you think? Is it OK for birth parents to track down the kids they gave up for adoption via Facebook or the Internet?

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