Ronya and Beau Buzbee, parents of slain teenager Hailey Buzbee, clap after Indiana Gov. Mike Braun ceremonially signs child protection bills into law at the Statehouse on Wednesday, April 1, 2026. Photo by Leslie Bonilla Muñiz, Indiana Capital Chronicle.
By Leslie Bonilla Muñiz
Indiana Capital Chronicle
INDIANAPOLIS — The parents of a slain Fishers teenager stood by Wednesday as Indiana Gov. Mike Braun ceremonially signed into law two measures intended to protect other Hoosier children.
Hailey Buzbee, 17, was initially classified as a “runaway.” Authorities have since said she was killed after being lured out by an online predator.
Her death renewed efforts at the Statehouse to restrict child social media access, via House Enrolled Act 1408.
“Our family and so many others continue to be devastated about Hailey,” said her father, Beau Buzbee. “Last night, (wife) Ronya and I read 1408 again, and it did give us a sense of hope. This isn’t a band-aid bill. This is forward movement.”
The measure clears the way for parental-consent requirements, age-verification mandates and algorithm limits for certain social media platforms used by Hoosiers under 16.
Braun called on social media companies to do their part, too.
“There’s a lot of money made on it, and to me, the responsibility really relies with them,” he said. “We, as state legislatures, are going to do the best we can. The true solution comes from there.”
Braun also ceremonially signed House Enrolled Act 1303, a crackdown on child predators.
The law amps up penalties for those who exploit children with child sex abuse material and tightens offender registration requirements.
And it specifies that the Silver Alert program applies to all missing children, not just those classified as endangered or abducted. No Silver or Amber Alert was issued in the Buzbee case.
“We know this work must continue,” Braun said. “… We are going to keep using every tool we have to protect kids … by empowering parents and putting predators behind bars where they belong.”
He professed support for a “Pink Alert” system proposed by the Buzbees but said he’d take “the cue … from parents” on whether to limit child social media use even further in the future.
Beau Buzbee said he appreciated the acknowledgement that there’s more left to do.
“(I) trust that if we make these bills our new baseline … going into this next session, and continue to get after it, Indiana can be known … across the country as a place that protects its children,” he said. “And the risk and vulnerability and the threat that’s within our homes, our community in the state, will start to dissipate.”
