Missouri Legislature Passes Bill Requiring Age Verification for Pornography Websites
Missouri lawmakers approve legislation requiring pornography sites to verify users are adults, with fines up to $260,000 for violations.
JEFFERSON CITY, MISSOURI — The Missouri Legislature has passed legislation requiring pornography websites to verify users’ ages before granting access, sending the measure to Governor Mike Kehoe for his signature.
The bill, sponsored by Republican state Representative Sherri Gallick of Belton, would codify existing age verification requirements into state law. Commercial websites and platforms already must verify that users are at least 18 if more than one-third of their content is sexually explicit under a rule enforced by Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway since December.
Legislative Approval and Vote Breakdown
The House passed the bill 112-25 on Wednesday, with 20 Democrats and five Republicans voting in opposition and 11 Democrats voting present. The Senate had previously approved the measure 32-0 on Tuesday, sending it back to the House for approval of a minor amendment.
The legislation stalled last year after receiving initial House approval but was dropped from the calendar due to a challenge in the U.S. Supreme Court to a similar Texas law. “The fear was, ‘Okay, what if they don’t uphold that? Then we would have’ [an invalid law],” according to the source material.
Requirements and Penalties
Under the proposed law, websites must use third-party age verification providers to confirm users are adults before accessing sexually explicit content. Sites that fail to comply face significant financial penalties.
Violators could face fines up to $10,000 per day for each violation of the law, with an additional $250,000 penalty if at least one minor accessed sexually explicit content. Websites could also be charged $10,000 per violation of provisions prohibiting age verification providers from retaining users’ identifiable information.
Sponsor’s Rationale
Representative Gallick emphasized concerns about the impact of explicit content on young people’s perceptions of reality. “One of the things that was really compelling to me is that a lot of people growing up in today’s age look at a phone or they look at a computer, and they think that is reality,” Gallick told The Independent. “It’s very demeaning to women and to children.”
The measure represents Missouri’s effort to regulate online adult content access, building on existing enforcement mechanisms already implemented by the state attorney general’s office. If signed by Governor Kehoe, the legislation would formalize these requirements in state statute rather than relying solely on administrative rules.
