A new Indiana state law, known as “Hailey’s Law,” was proposed on March 26 to further educate children on grooming, expand missing persons alert systems and hold digital platforms accountable.
According to WTHR, Hailey Buzbee, a 17-year-old Fishers resident, went missing on Jan. 5, 2026, and was later found dead in Ohio. Because Buzbee did not have a disability or a medical condition, nor was there proof of abduction, neither a Silver Alert nor an Amber Alert was released in Buzbee’s case. This led to her classification as a runaway, according to WTHR.
The Buzbee family is proposing “Hailey’s Law,” which includes the expansion of Indiana’s alert system through a phenomenon referred to as the “Pink Alert,” according to FOX 59. The “Pink Alert” would activate when a substantial risk is indicated in a missing persons case, such as contact with unknown predators, indicators of trafficking or exploitation, or a sudden disappearance without contact or verified whereabouts, according to FOX 59.
“This is the big political argument. If we have too many alerts, people stop paying attention to them,” University of Indianapolis Associate Professor of Political Science Laura Merrifield Wilson said. “On the other hand, there is a gap in the alert system. Silver alerts are for older people. Amber Alerts are for young minors. In this case, there was nothing they could do. By creating ‘Hailey’s Law,’ if it were to pass, it would allow a vulnerable population to have some sort of alert system to try to prevent things like this in the future.”
An additional aspect of “Hailey’s Law” is concern with the education of children on the topic of grooming. According to WBIW, the law would mandate online grooming education in Indiana schools.
According to University of Indianapolis Associate Professor of Political Science Greg Shufeldt, the youth education aspect is seemingly the most feasible because many schools already implement similar initiatives, and there are no natural opponents. However, Shufeldt acknowledged this aspect’s reliance on young people to recognize and abstain from dangerous situations, as well as its failure to stop predators from engaging in these threatening behaviors.
“Hailey’s Law” will be considered in the 2027 legislative session, although two bills centered around child exploitation and social media protection for minors already passed during the 2026 session of the Indiana General Assembly, according to FOX 59. The first bill, “House Enrolled Act 1303,” expands the Silver Alert program to missing children and institutes a new crime regarding the distribution of child sex abuse material, according to the Indiana General Assembly. The second bill, “House Enrolled Act 1408,” requires Indiana residents 16 years old or younger to have verified parental permission to open a social media account, according to ACLU Indiana. The legislation was made possible by the Buzbee family’s advocacy, according to FOX 59.
“It takes a lot of time to raise awareness on issues, to cut across bureaucracy and to get members of political parties to agree on something,” Shufeldt said. “…While what the General Assembly did this session might not be the full extent of what the Buzbee family would like ‘Hailey’s Law’ to look like, [the lack of] organized opposition allowed this to move more quickly than we might expect.”
