U.S. Army National Guard photo by Staff Sgt. Hector Tinoco
Indiana National Guard soldiers with 113th Engineer Battalion, based in Gary, and assigned to Joint Task Force – District of Columbia, during a departure ceremony in Franklin, Indiana, Dec. 5, 2025. Hoosier Guardsmen on this mission will assist the local and federal law enforcement partners with community safety patrols, traffic control posts and crowd flow support.
An age limit for social media. Limits on law enforcement duties for Indiana National Guard members. Rape kit testing. Data center water regulations.
Those are among the topics covered in bills filed by state lawmakers outside of Bartholomew County for the 2026 legislation session.
Indiana National Guard
House Bill 1015 would bar the governor in most cases from ordering a member of the Indiana National Guard to perform any law enforcement duty that may result in surveillance, apprehension, detention or arrests.
The bill would carve out exceptions for an Indiana National Guard unit that has been federalized under federal law or if there is an emergency such as a natural disaster, riot or act of terrorism.
Social media age limits
Senate Bill 129 would require social media companies to ban children younger than 16 from accessing their platforms unless they first obtain parental consent.
The bill would also allow the Indiana Attorney General to notify social media platforms of violations. If the platform does not fix violations within 90 days, it could face fines of up to $250,000.
The bill comes after Australia recently became the first country to ban social media for children younger than 16, The Associated Press reported.
Facebook, Instagram, Kick, Reddit, Snapchat, Threads, TikTok, X, YouTube and Twitch face fines of up to 49.5 million Australian dollars ($32.9 million) if they fail to take reasonable steps to remove the accounts of Australian children younger than 16.
Rape kits
HB 1073 would require Indiana State Police to use $2.5 million in appropriations from the budget bill passed earlier this year to process rape kits and eliminate the state’s backlog of untested kits.
After a sexual assault, survivors can undergo a forensic medical examination to collect evidence, which is preserved in what is often referred to as a rape kit. The evidence in the kit can be used by police to bring the perpetrator to justice.
In 2017, Indiana completed a one-time audit of untested rape kits and identified 4,980 backlogged rape kits connected to reported crimes across the state, according to End the Backlog, a project that seeks to eliminate untested rape kit backlogs nationwide.
Data center regulations
HB 1043 would require data center operators to secure a water consumption permit from the Indiana Department of Natural Resources before they could operation in the state.
Data center operators would be required to include their estimated water consumption and anticipated water source, among other things, in their permit application.
Data centers need a tremendous amount of water to keep cool, The Associated Press reported. Some communities strongly oppose data centers because they demand so much energy and water.
The U.S. has seen an increase in data centers used to power artificial intelligence.
