The decision to adopt is one you should never enter into lightly. There's often red tape, endless paperwork, and delays that can put an emotional toll on both men and women who are dying to become parents. It's a complex process. That's why Adoptly, a new adoption app that lets you swipe right and left on potential kids to adopt, is so confusing.
The app is still in the development stages — though Adoptly's Kickstarter campaign has been suspended — and if it comes into fruition, prospective parents can sign up for the free app (Adoptly notes you'll be responsible for federal and state fees — including background checks) and have access to a database of adoptable children they can scroll through like a catalog.
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As Adoptly notes on its website, you can "just swipe right if you're interested, or left to keep looking. And if a kid, through their agency or foster care, likes you back it's a match."
WTF?
Embedded content: https://www.youtube.com/embed/k4W1DufjdQg
This is not an SNL skit or an April Fools joke that's gone viral. Adoptly is a real adoption app with Tinder-like attributes that are causing people to lose their sh*t.
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"No, no no no no no and NO! this is awful!" one YouTube commenter wrote.
"Great!!! An app for pedophiles … I hope they're joking," another person mentioned.
Thankfully, potential Adoptly users would have to pass government-mandated background checks that would seemingly keep child predators at bay — which is a definite plus.
Still, I don't know how I feel about this.
As a mom of two who's interested in adopting a child, I'm trying hard to picture myself using such an app, and I can't do it.
It's great that Adoptly wants to "forge faster connections" and create "stronger bonds," but there's something impersonal — something that borders on impulsiveness and lack of sensitivity — that makes me feel this adoption app wouldn't actually do that.
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I'll swipe right for things I want to buy online — groceries, beauty products, and clothes — but not a child.
While the app would likely shorten the time it takes to find a match in adoption databases, is this really the best answer for streamlining the adoption process? We need to reform our adoption process to make it easier for children in the system to get matched with loving families. Adoptly even says its company "does not directly connect prospective children to prospective parents, and is not itself a network of adoptable children, nor is it an adoption agency."
Personally, I don't think I would ever be okay with using this app to connect me with a potential adoption match, so I'll swipe left on this entire notion.
Embedded content: https://media.giphy.com/media/EKkXASkdWVOFi/giphy.gif
