JEFFERSON CITY, Mo.—The Missouri state Senate voted unanimously to adopt a bill that would officially codify age verification requirements for users looking to access adult content within the state's jurisdiction.
A third-reading and final Senate vote was held Tuesday, sending the measure back to the House of Representatives for a final round of actions, including a fiscal review. Once those steps are complete, the bill will be sent to the desk of Gov. Mike Kehoe for a signature and ratification. Note, Missouri is under a conservative Republican supermajority in both chambers and within the executive branch.
As AVN reported initially, three separate AV proposals—HB 1839, introduced by state Rep. Sherri Gallick; HB 2921, introduced by state Rep. Melissa Schmidt; and HB 3015, introduced by state Rep. Jeff Farnan—were combined by the House Children and Families Committee into a substitute bill.
It was that bill that advanced through the House with opposition from progressives and civil liberties-minded Democrats. But the bill was met with little opposition in the upper house.
It would require all websites with at least 33 percent of their content being comprised of material that is considered harmful to minors or "pornographic"—including adult platforms and mainstream social media networks like Reddit and X—to verify users' ages.
Despite a non-legislative regulatory intervention issued by former Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey in 2025 and further championed by his replacement, Catherine Hanaway, lawmakers in the Republican-controlled state legislature want the requirement codified in state statute to make future repeal harder.
