Once a year, Allison Allsop gathers her kids and talks to them about online dangers and staying safe.
She believes education on topics like this begin in the home and should be expanded on in school.
“I feel like that's my job as a parent, to protect my children,” she said. “There's a lack of knowledge of what the kids can get into online. And there's a lack of restrictions, unfortunately, and kids themselves are unaware of what they're getting into themselves. And it can lead to some disastrous events.”
Allsop considers herself stricter than the average parent when it comes to social media use. She doesn’t let her kids have a phone until they turn 16. They can’t be on social media until the summer after they graduate high school. They’re not allowed to use the home phone until middle school.
“Kids are given phones,” she said. “Kids are going to bed with phones and they're scrolling, and they don't know that they're scrolling right into danger.”
The danger resulted in tragedy for 17-year-old Hailey Buzbee from Fishers. She was found dead after being groomed by a man with whom she had played games online. Buzbee went missing last month and was later killed, but an Amber Alert was never issued. According to the Fishers Police Department, she left “willingly and with a plan.” She was classified as a runaway, which doesn't meet the criteria for an Amber Alert because there has to be an abduction and danger of harm.
A petition calls on the Indiana General Assembly to create a new Pink Alert system and add mandated grooming awareness education in schools that addresses online grooming and digital manipulation. It has garnered over 110,000 signatures, including Allsop’s.
In Indiana, an Amber Alert is issued if four criteria are met: the child is under the age of 18 and the child is believed to be abducted or in danger of bodily harm or death. There must also be enough descriptive information to believe the broadcast will help and the request for the alert must be recommended by the law enforcement agency of jurisdiction.
Last year, the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force (ICACT) investigated over 20,000 online exploitation cases in Indiana; over five years, that number is 70,000.
Rep. Chris Jeter (R-Fishers) said it’s too late in the legislative session to introduce a standalone bill on the issue. But earlier this week, lawmakers announced they would add an amendment to House Bill 1303, which covers child sexual abuse material crimes, that would expand the definition of an Amber Alert.
“The language is going to focus a lot more on opening the aperture a little bit more on cases like this one, where there's like, some enticement and grooming,” Jeter said, “and freeing up law enforcement to be able to issue alerts when they know the situation.”
The petition calls for the General Assembly to establish a new Pink Alert system separate from the Amber and Silver Alerts; a Pink Alert would be issued if someone’s disappearance is deemed dangerous or unusual. Jeter said he is working with experts at the Clearing House, which issues Amber Alerts, about how to proceed with potentially creating a new alert.
“The Pink Alert, I think, is a great idea,” Jeter said. “Another route to go would be to just use the existing alerts but expand the criteria. So, you know, which is better? You know, if we have too many different colored alerts, does it sort of desensitize people? Should we just expand the ability to send an actual Amber Alert, or should we have a new kind of color? Those are the discussions that are going on right now as we're kind of crafting this language.”
Indiana Code 20-30-5-5.7 requires K-12 schools annually to provide age-appropriate instruction on child abuse and child sexual abuse. Jeter said next legislative session, it’s likely there will be a standalone bill that would expand instruction on online grooming, which has become much more common in the last few years.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) received over 546,000 reports concerning online enticement in 2024, a 192 percent increase from 2023. In Indiana in 2019, NCMEC received over 4,300 CyberTips; in 2025, there were over 29,600 CyberTips reported.
“It's just a different world, and the law has got to reflect the world that we're in,” Jeter said. “And I think that's our job as legislators, to keep the law updated with current events. It's incredibly hard [when] the technological advancements are moving so fast. Kids are moving between platforms so fast. It's a challenge. But our job is to try to meet that challenge.”
Current education on online safety
Schools in Bloomington take varying approaches to educate students on how to stay safe online.
Robert Akers, head of school for the Covenant Christian School in Bloomington, said everyone at the school is trained on sexual harassment, child abuse and neglect and safe practices in the workplace. His curriculum already covers teaching kids about boundaries and what appropriate behavior is.
“In teaching children, we don't want to plant ideas in someone's mind that they've not been exposed to yet. That's the fine line that we walk in in this environment; our parents tend to value their children's innocence and maybe a little bit more sheltered than where they might be in other environments,” he said. “But we do cover at every age level, appropriate versus inappropriate touch, red flag situations. You know, if an adult asks you to keep a secret, that's always inappropriate.”
Akers said they have held assemblies that cover how to stay safe online. His focus is on helping students manage the online component of life.
“If adults can't tell the difference between what's real and AI, we certainly can't expect our children to be able to distinguish it,” Akers said. “So, that's part of that training with children, is understanding what it means to trust someone and whom we might trust versus individuals that we should not trust. It's just a very difficult and dangerous world for our children to try to navigate on their own.”
Akers said he would support Hailey’s Law if it were to pass. He said he has flexibility in the school day, which is longer than what the state requires, to incorporate any additional mandates the state would pass. Indiana Code states that kids in grades 1-6 have at least five hours of instructional time, and kids in grades 7-12 have at least six hours of instructional time.
“If the state were to provide us with resources and direction, we have, as I mentioned, through our daily Bible classes, which, it’s a class with the religious focus, but take that with the broadest of interpretation,” he said. “It deals with family dynamics, problem solving, relationships. Within that, there's a lot of room for us to address whatever the state might mandate.”
Akers said he currently has a policy allowing children to select an adult advocate if they need to talk about anything. He also stresses the importance of building a positive self-image early on and having healthy role models.
“What we're really trying to do is to address the insecurities that children have that make them vulnerable, helping them to understand that that they don't need the approval of someone else,” he said. “We talk about your identity in Jesus Christ. Your identity in Jesus Christ is not based on the money that you have, the clothes that you wear, the opinions of others toward you. We say you're fearfully and wonderfully made. You're enough. You don't need someone else's approval to be good enough.”
In response to an email from WFIU/WTIU News requesting an interview on the matter, MCCSC School Board President Erin Cooperman said she was not the best person to answer questions and referred inquiries to Superintendent Markay Winston and Communications Director Sarah DeWeese. Neither responded to multiple requests for an interview.
On the corporation’s website are tip sheets from Common Sense Media on topics ranging from cyberbullying to having a digital footprint and spotting fakes online. These sheets supplement the lessons children receive in school on the subject.
In fifth grade, kids receive sex education. But Allsop said she’s not aware of her kids being taught specifically about online grooming.
Expanding the curriculum
Deb Getz, associate clinical professor at the Indiana University School of Public Health, has worked with state and national organizations to create, deliver and evaluate human trafficking curricula. She said the main gap in the current state mandate on online grooming education is that it’s unfunded.
Amid state budget cuts, many schools don’t have the resources to pay professionals to come in and provide education on online safety. Getz said teachers who may not have the proper training or may not be comfortable delivering sensitive information are expected to do it themselves without additional pay.
“Some are able to cover the cost of a day-long effort where an individual comes in and meets with multiple classes,” Getz said. “But it's not the standard, and when our schools are already so overwhelmed, to ask them to pay for this is just not appropriate.”
If the General Assembly passes new mandated grooming awareness education, Getz would help a school corporation implement those changes by first seeing what policies already exist. She would help schools build on existing plans to implement any new requirements from the state.
Children are vulnerable to online exploitation due to factors such as housing instability, unmet basic needs and history of trauma, Getz said. When teaching children about this topic, she recommends professionals normalize sensitive topics, use developmentally appropriate language and have an open line of communication.
When teaching children about what they should and shouldn’t do, Getz takes a harm reduction approach.
“I try not to say to young people, don't share images, it's bad, it's dangerous, right? Because then if they do share images, they're going to be like, well, they told me not to, so I can't go to them,” she said. “It's really about helping them understand the rationale for why we don't do it, helping them understand that it's going to happen in some environment in which they're engaging and to make sure they know what to do and how to help themselves, but also their peers. Kids want to be empowered. They want to learn. They want to know how to be responsible.”
Getz believes education on online grooming, which is continuously changing, shouldn’t become a “check box” but something that is taught regularly. The median age range for exploitation to start either in person or online is between 13 and 15 years of age. Getz thinks education on exploitation awareness should begin earlier in a child’s life.
“What we need to do is acknowledge that if we ignore what's happening with exploitation and trafficking, we're empowering the ones who want to come in and exploit our children,” she said. “So, what we need to do is empower the children and the youth and the adults and the adolescents and the communities through knowledge and resources, so that when it happens in their community, they're prepared.”
If you have concerns about the welfare of a child who is in imminent harm, Getz recommends calling 911. If not concerned about imminent danger, Getz says calling the Department of Child Services, the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force or the Indiana State Police will help.
