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A sharp rise in online tips about child exploitation led to hundreds of arrests and dozens of rescues in Indiana last year, but state leaders warn that predators are becoming harder to track.
Gov. Mike Braun said Tuesday he wants technology companies that design and profit from social media platforms to take greater responsibility for child safety. He argued, too, that Silicon Valley — not parents or police alone — need to make platforms safer and be more cooperative with law enforcement.
Those concerns have prompted renewed legislative momentum at the Statehouse this week, where lawmakers have revived a proposal to restrict minors’ access to social media. The push has intensified after the recent disappearance and death of Fishers teenager Hailey Buzbee, who was killed after being lured online by a predator.
Indiana State Police arrested 499 people for crimes against children in 2025 and rescued 126 children from ongoing abuse as part of a rapidly expanding effort to combat online exploitation, Braun’s office announced Tuesday.
New data show the Indiana Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force received 29,635 cyber tips in 2025 — a 38% increase over the prior year — and has already logged nearly 3,000 tips in early 2026.
The task force itself grew by 50 officers last year, expanding from 470 to 520 law enforcement personnel statewide.
Indiana State Police Superintendent Anthony Scott said the surge in tips reflects both the explosion of online platforms used by children and a concerted effort by law enforcement to encourage reporting.
But he also pointed to growing sophistication among offenders seeking to evade detection.
“I think it’s a combination of several things,” Scott said in a sit-down interview Tuesday with the Indiana Capital Chronicle. “Technology, number one, has created more platforms for children, specifically teenagers, to access the internet and communicate with people.”
Harder to track predators
Scott said predators are increasingly using tools like virtual private networks, or VPNs, and apps that limit data collection to avoid being identified by investigators.
“These predators on the other end of these are using countermeasures to prevent parental controls — the things that we are trying to do to keep children safe,” Scott said. “They’re trying to combat that by using VPNs and other apps that we can’t track.”
While Scott said no single platform stands out as more problematic than others, he emphasized that any service that allows private communication without parental knowledge can be exploited.
“Any platform or app that has the ability for people to communicate without their parents knowing, the predators are using all of those,” Scott said. “That’s their full-time job. They are sitting behind a computer screen trying to target a child.”
The expansion of the ICAC task force has relied heavily on partnerships with local law enforcement agencies and prosecutors across the state, Scott said, noting that investigations often require lengthy legal processes to obtain search warrants and subpoenas.
“It is cumbersome to go through numerous subpoenas, numerous search warrants to try to get to an end user,” he said. “The cell phone providers have become pretty good, but some of these apps are not as cooperative with law enforcement as the big companies are.”
Scott said Indiana State Police generally have strong working relationships with major telecommunications providers like AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon, but large social media platforms aren’t always as cooperative.
“They just don’t reply, sometimes even with a court order,” Scott said. “So that’s a problem. Obviously, it creates problems for law enforcement.”
Braun echoed those concerns, placing responsibility squarely on technology companies that design and profit from online platforms.
“There’s only one cure to this,” Braun said. “The people that make the platforms — that profit from it — have to make it completely different to where the parents are in control. And they need to make it easy.”
Braun pointed to the recent disappearance and death of Fishers teenager Hailey Buzbee, whose case has renewed scrutiny of youth social media use and online safety at the Statehouse.
Braun said he met with Buzbee’s parents on Monday and described them as “very astute parents” who saw no warning signs before their daughter vanished.
“Everything is now defaulting to where this can happen,” Braun said. “Big tech has the ability to solve all of this, and they’re going to need to be held accountable.”
‘Totally the fault of big tech’
Braun argued that technology companies have long been shielded from liability and said state and federal lawmakers must reconsider that framework.
“This, to me, is totally the fault of big tech,” Braun said. “Their algorithms make it happen. They need to do something about it.”
The governor’s comments followed a lengthy Monday hearing in the House Education Committee, where lawmakers debated if — and how — to restrict minor Hoosiers from accessing social media platforms.
Lawmakers are weighing an amendment to Senate Bill 199, authored by Sen. Jeff Raatz, R-Richmond, that would strengthen age verification requirements, expand parental consent and control tools, and increase enforcement for social media companies.
Similar language was stripped from legislation earlier in the session. The new provisions were fueled, in part, by testimony from parents — including Buzbee’s father — urging lawmakers to act.
Braun and Buzbee’s family have also advocated for a so-called “Pink Alert” to address cases involving grooming or coercion that fall outside existing Amber Alert criteria. Republican and Democratic leaders said they’re working on possible legislative responses before the end of session, scheduled for late February.
Braun said he favors strict social media limits for younger children and stronger parental controls across the board.
“As far as I’m concerned, you’re considered an adult at 18,” Braun said. “To me, it should be a complete lockdown on 12 and younger — to where the parents have complete control over it.”
For teenagers, Braun said lawmakers should “err on the side of being stringent,” even as technology continues to evolve faster than legislation.
“We can do everything possible, and still the other side keeps finding a way around it,” he said. “If smart people in Silicon Valley don’t figure out how to fix it, I think you’re going to see the heat of state governments coming down upon you — and the federal government.”
The governor said he expects additional proposals to take shape over the next two years. The goal, he said, is to empower parents and force greater accountability from technology companies.
“I want to err on the side of giving parents the tools, holding big tech accountable,” Braun said. “And then hopefully the federal government will get involved, where this cannot happen — to where it’s all to the advantage of the parents to prevent it, not the perpetrators to pull it off.”
The Indiana Capital Chronicle is an independent, nonprofit news organization that covers state government, policy and elections.
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