November 2013Vol. 14, No. 8Social Media and Postadoption Connections
While recent changes to laws in some States have made it possible to access adoption records more readily than in the past, many adopted persons and birth parents have found making connections with each other through social media to be easier, faster, and more cost effective. In a recent law journal article, a family law attorney in Arizona discusses the utility of social media in making family connections, as well as some of the legal ramifications and pitfalls of social media use.
The topics discussed include the following:
- Privacy issues in adoption
- Privacy issues associated with using social media
- How adopted persons, birth parents, and other birth family members can use social media to find information about one another and to stay in touch
- The social and emotional ramifications of connecting through social media
- The potential legal liability arising from the use of social media in postadoption search and reunion
- The potential impact of such searches on other members of birth and adoptive families
The article concludes with the author's suggestion that the adopted person and birth family share a history and that each has the right to explore and communicate that history without being found to have abridged the privacy of the other.
"Use of Social Media in Post-Adoption Search and Reunion," by Ann M. Haralambie, Capital University Law Review (41 Cap. U.L. Rev. 177), not yet freely available online, will soon be available on the Review's website: