A child protection advocate says children in foster care are being left exposed by the legislation designed to protect them.
Bravehearts founder Hetty Johnston says the suspected murder of Brisbane schoolgirl Tiahleigh Palmer highlights the need for reform to the Child Protection Act.
Ms Johnston says the six-day delay between Tiahleigh's disappearance on October 30 and the police alert would have been due to laws restricting publicity about children in state care.
The 12-year-old's body was discovered on the banks of a Gold Coast river hours after police had issued their alert.
Ms Johnston says the restrictions on carers and parents when a foster child goes missing are actually making them targets for predators.
"They can target these particular kids because they are far more vulnerable than any other and response to their disappearance is less than adequate," she told AAP.
"If someone stole your child you'd be all over the place in 30 seconds and you'd be allowed to by law - but these parents, these families and these foster carers can't and these offenders know that. Make no mistake.
"We've got to change it."
Under the Child Protection Act, specific permissions have to be granted before anything which may identify a child in care is published.
However, Minister for Child Safety Shannon Fentiman said that shouldn't prevent a foster child from being named to media as missing.
"The Child Protection Act prevents people from naming children and disclosing they are in care, it does not prevent naming children who are missing, or taking every possible action to find them, including speaking in the media, or through social media," Ms Fentiman said.
Foster Carers Queensland chief executive Bryan Smith echoed Ms Johnston's frustrations.
"While we have to report (missing kids) to police straightaway ... our hands are tied then in terms of what the confidentiality provisions under the act tell us we're allowed to do," Mr Smith told AAP.
He said a carer could not contact the child's biological family even if they believed that was where the child may be.
"Essentially nothing. We can't do anything," he said.
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the government would look into such concerns and also requested a briefing from the child safety department.
"There's not a person throughout this state who is not touched by what has happened to this poor young girl," she said.
Detectives questioned pupils at Marsden State High School in south Brisbane as they returned for the first day back since Tiahleigh's body was identified.
"She was an enthusiastic and friendly student who will be greatly missed by all her friends and teachers," principal Andrew Peach said.
