Gov. Mike Kehoe has announced he will sign legislation Thursday requiring pornography websites to verify that users are adults before allowing them to access sexually explicit content.
The bill, which will take effect Aug. 28, applies to commercial websites and social media platforms that knowingly and intentionally publish or distribute content in Missouri if more than one-third is "sexual material harmful to minors."
It was included in a list of 22 bills Kehoe's office said he plans to sign on Thursday.
Covered sites would have to use a third party to conduct "reasonable" age verification, confirming that a user is at least 18 through digital identification, government-issued identification or a commercially reasonable system relying on public or private transactional data, such as records from mortgage, education or employment entities.
Third-party age verification providers would be barred from retaining identifying information about users.
The bill is designed to put into state law a policy Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway has already begun enforcing through an administrative rule under the Missouri Merchandising Practices Act. That rule took effect in December and prompted Pornhub, the largest adult-content website, to block access in Missouri rather than implement site-level age checks.
"This is the source. Children do not need to view pornography," state Rep. Sherri Gallick, a Belton Republican who carried the bill, told The Independent in May.
Gallick argued that easy access to online pornography distorts minors' understanding of sex and relationships and can be used by predators to groom children.
"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 said. "It's very demeaning to women and to children."
Under the bill, the attorney general could sue commercial entities accused of knowingly violating the law. Courts could impose civil penalties of up to $10,000 for each day a website operates without the required age checks and $10,000 per violation if an age-verification provider retains identifying information.
If at least one minor accesses sexual material harmful to minors because a covered website failed to comply, the court could impose an additional penalty of up to $250,000.
The bill includes exemptions for bona fide news and public-interest broadcasts, website videos, reports or events, and says it should not be interpreted to affect the rights of news-gathering organizations. Internet service providers, search engines and cloud service providers would also be shielded from liability when they merely provide access or connection to content they did not create and do not control.
The measure passed the Senate 32-0 in May before returning to the House, where it won final approval on a 112-25 vote. Twenty Democrats and five Republicans voted against it, while 11 Democrats voted "present."
Supporters say the law is needed to make it harder for minors to encounter explicit material online. Opponents questioned whether the requirement would work, warning that teenagers could bypass age checks through virtual private networks and that privacy concerns could push major adult sites out of Missouri while driving traffic to less regulated websites.
"Kids are smart," state Rep. Eric Woods, a Kansas City Democrat, said during House debate in March. "There are VPNs. There are browser settings that allow you to skirt around some of this stuff."
The legislation advanced after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a similar Texas law last year. In a 6-3 decision issued last year, the court ruled Texas could require pornographic websites to verify users' ages, saying the state had an important interest in shielding minors from sexually explicit content.
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