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SECOND REGULAR SESSION
[TRUL Y AGREED T O AND FINALL Y P ASSED]
HOUSE COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR
HOUSE BILL NOS. 1839, 2921 & 3015
103RD GENERAL ASSEMBL Y
4734H.04T 2026
AN ACT
T o amend chapter 407, RSMo, by adding thereto one new section relating to age verification
on adult websites, with penalty provisions.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the state of Missouri, as follows:
Section A. Chapter 407, RSMo, is amended by adding thereto one new section, to be
2 known as section 407.3405, to read as follows:
407.3405. 1. As used in this section, the following terms mean:
2 (1) "Age verification", a method by which a commer cial entity verifies the age of
3 an individual by req uiring the individual to:
4 (a) Pr ovide digital identification; or
5 (b) Comply with a commer cial age-verification system that verifies age using:
6 a. Government-issued identification; or
7 b. A commer cially r easonable method that r elies on public or private
8 transactional data to verify the age of an individual;
9 (2) "Commer cial entity", a corporation, limited liability company , partnership,
10 limited partnership, sole pro prietorship, or other legally recog nized business entity;
11 (3) "Digital identification", information stor ed on a digital network that may be
12 accessed by a commer cial entity and that serves as pr oof of the identity of an individual;
13 (4) "Distribute", to issue, sell, give, provi de, deliver , transfer , transmute,
14 cir culate, or disseminate by any means;
15 (5) "Minor", an individual younger than eighteen years of age;
16 (6) "News-gathering organization":
EXPLANA TION — Matter enclosed in bold-faced brackets [thus] in the above bill is not enacted and is
intended to be omitted from the law . Matter in bold-face type in the above bill is proposed language.
17 (a) An employee of a newspaper , news publication, or news source, printed or on
18 an online or mobile platform, of curr ent news and public interes t, who is acting within
19 the course and scope of that employment and can provi de documentation of that
20 employment with the newspaper , news publication, or news source; and
21 (b) An employee of a radio br oadcast station, television br oadcast station, cable
22 television operator , or wire service who is acting within the course and scope of that
23 employment and can pr ovide documentation of that employment;
24 (7) "Publish", to communicate or make information available to another person
25 or entity on a publicly available internet website;
26 (8) "Sexual material harmful to minors", any material that:
27 (a) The average person applying contemporary community standards would
28 find, taking the material as a whole and with res pect to minors, is designed to appeal to
29 or pander to the prurient inter est;
30 (b) In a manner patently offensive with re spect to minors, exploits, is devoted to,
31 or principally consists of descriptions of actual, simulated, or animated displays or
32 depictions of:
33 a. A person's pubic hair , anus, or genitals or the nipple of the female bre ast;
34 b. T ouching, cares sing, or fondling of nipples, br easts, buttocks, anuses, or
35 genitals; or
36 c. Sexual inter course, masturbation, sodomy , bestiality , oral copulation,
37 flagellation, excret ory functions, exhibitions, or any other sexual act; and
38 (c) T aken as a whole, lacks serious literary , artistic, political, or scientific value
39 for minors;
40 (9) "T ransactional data", a sequence of information that documents an
41 exchange, agreement, or transfer between an individual, commer cial entity , or third
42 party used for the purpose of satisfying a re quest or event. "T ransactional data"
43 includes recor ds fr om mortgage, education, and employment entities.
44 2. A commer cial entity that knowingly and intentionally publishes or distributes
45 material on an internet website, including a social media platform, mor e than one-third
46 of which is sexual material harmful to minors, shall use a third party to perform
47 r easonable age-verification methods to verify that an individual attempting to access the
48 material is eighteen years of age or older .
49 3. A third party that performs the age verification under this section shall not
50 r etain any identifying information of the individual.
51 4. This section shall not apply to a bona fide news or public interes t br oadcast,
52 website video, rep ort, or event and shall not be construed to affect the rights of a news-
53 gathering organization.
HCS HBs 1839, 2921 & 3015 2
54 5. An internet service prov ider , or its affiliates or subsidiaries, a sear ch engine,
55 or a cloud service pro vider shall not be held to have violated prov isions of this section
56 solely for pr oviding access or connection to or fr om a website or other information or
57 content on the internet or on a facility , system, or network not under that prov ider's
58 contr ol, including transmission, downloading, intermediate storage, access softwar e, or
59 other services to the extent the prov ider or sear ch engine is not res ponsible for the
60 cr eation of the content that constitutes sexual material harmful to minors.
61 6. The attorney general shall enfor ce the pro visions of this section. If the
62 attorney general believes that a commer cial entity is knowingly violating or has
63 knowingly violated the pro visions of this section and the action is in the public inter est,
64 the attorney general may bring an action in a court of competent jurisdiction. If the
65 court finds that a violation occurre d, the court may grant damages, injunctive relief,
66 civil penalties, court costs and r easonable attorney's fees, and any such other r elief the
67 court finds appr opriate. Civil penalties shall be as follows:
68 (1) T en thousand dollars per day that a commer cial entity operates a website in
69 violation of the age-verification r equir ements under this section;
70 (2) T en thousand dollars per instance when a commer cial entity ret ains
71 identifying information in violation of this section; and
72 (3) An additional amount of not mor e than two hundr ed fifty thousand dollars if
73 one or mor e minors accessed sexual material harmful to minors in violation of the age-
74 verification requi rem ents under this section.
✔
HCS HBs 1839, 2921 & 3015 3