The War on Porn Regular Updates about the Assault on The Adult Industry
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JEFFERSON CITY, Mo.—Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway, a Republican, announced Thursday that the state’s age verification regulation for online adult platforms will officially take effect on November 30, 2025.
“This rule is a milestone in our effort to protect Missouri children from the devastating harms of online pornography,” Hanaway said. “We are holding powerful corporations accountable, respecting women and victims of human trafficking, and helping ensure that minors are shielded from dangerous, sexually explicit material.”
The measure, grounded in Missouri’s consumer protection laws, finalizes a regulatory process first initiated by Hanaway’s predecessor, Andrew Bailey. Bailey’s attempt to advance the rule faced criticism for disorganization and for relying on technology that experts said did not exist.
In April, AVN reported that Bailey had advanced a version of the regulation requiring “dual-level” age verification for all websites deemed harmful to minors—a category that includes sexually explicit material. But according to Iain Corby, executive director of the Age Verification Providers Association, dual-level verification remains technically impossible. While Bailey’s regulation was published in the Missouri Register, the final text omitted references to that requirement.
Industry stakeholders, including the Free Speech Coalition (FSC), had predicted the earlier version of the rule would not take effect by the projected August 30 deadline, noting that “the final rules were not published in time.”
Hanaway has now completed the rulemaking process, making Missouri the first state to mandate age verification for adult websites through regulatory action rather than legislation.
