Establishes provisions relating to civil liability for publishing or distributing material harmful to minors on the internet, the official text

SECOND REGULAR SESSION
                             [TRULY AGREED TO AND FINALLY PASSED]

                                 HOUSE COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR

    HOUSE BILL NOS. 1839, 2921 & 3015

               103RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY

    4734H.04T                               2026

                                           AN ACT

    To 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 commercial entity verifies the age of

3 an individual by requiring the individual to:

4   (a) Provide digital identification; or

5   (b) Comply with a commercial age-verification system that verifies age using:

6   a. Government-issued identification; or

7   b. A commercially reasonable method that relies on public or private

8 transactional data to verify the age of an individual;

9   (2) "Commercial entity", a corporation, limited liability company, partnership,

10 limited partnership, sole proprietorship, or other legally recognized business entity;

11  (3) "Digital identification", information stored on a digital network that may be

12 accessed by a commercial entity and that serves as proof of the identity of an individual;

13  (4) "Distribute", to issue, sell, give, provide, deliver, transfer, transmute,

14 circulate, or disseminate by any means;

15  (5) "Minor", an individual younger than eighteen years of age;

16  (6) "News-gathering organization":

    EXPLANATION — 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.
HCS HBs 1839, 2921 & 3015                       2

17  (a) An employee of a newspaper, news publication, or news source, printed or on

18 an online or mobile platform, of current news and public interest, who is acting within

19 the course and scope of that employment and can provide documentation of that

20 employment with the newspaper, news publication, or news source; and

21  (b) An employee of a radio broadcast station, television broadcast station, cable

22 television operator, or wire service who is acting within the course and scope of that

23 employment and can provide 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 respect to minors, is designed to appeal to

29 or pander to the prurient interest;

30  (b) In a manner patently offensive with respect 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 breast;

34  b. Touching, caressing, or fondling of nipples, breasts, buttocks, anuses, or

35 genitals; or

36  c. Sexual intercourse, masturbation, sodomy, bestiality, oral copulation,

37 flagellation, excretory functions, exhibitions, or any other sexual act; and

38  (c) Taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value

39 for minors;

40  (9) "Transactional data", a sequence of information that documents an

41 exchange, agreement, or transfer between an individual, commercial entity, or third

42 party used for the purpose of satisfying a request or event. "Transactional data"

43 includes records from mortgage, education, and employment entities.

44  2. A commercial entity that knowingly and intentionally publishes or distributes

45 material on an internet website, including a social media platform, more than one-third

46 of which is sexual material harmful to minors, shall use a third party to perform

47 reasonable 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 retain any identifying information of the individual.

51  4. This section shall not apply to a bona fide news or public interest broadcast,

52 website video, report, or event and shall not be construed to affect the rights of a news-

53 gathering organization.
HCS HBs 1839, 2921 & 3015  3

54  5. An internet service provider, or its affiliates or subsidiaries, a search engine,

55 or a cloud service provider shall not be held to have violated provisions of this section

56 solely for providing access or connection to or from a website or other information or

57 content on the internet or on a facility, system, or network not under that provider's

58 control, including transmission, downloading, intermediate storage, access software, or

59 other services to the extent the provider or search engine is not responsible for the

60 creation of the content that constitutes sexual material harmful to minors.

61  6. The attorney general shall enforce the provisions of this section. If the

62 attorney general believes that a commercial entity is knowingly violating or has

63 knowingly violated the provisions of this section and the action is in the public interest,

64 the attorney general may bring an action in a court of competent jurisdiction. If the

65 court finds that a violation occurred, the court may grant damages, injunctive relief,

66 civil penalties, court costs and reasonable attorney's fees, and any such other relief the

67 court finds appropriate. Civil penalties shall be as follows:

68  (1) Ten thousand dollars per day that a commercial entity operates a website in

69 violation of the age-verification requirements under this section;

70  (2) Ten thousand dollars per instance when a commercial entity retains

71 identifying information in violation of this section; and

72  (3) An additional amount of not more than two hundred fifty thousand dollars if

73 one or more minors accessed sexual material harmful to minors in violation of the age-

74 verification requirements under this section.

                           ✔