Missouri's attorney general recently rolled out an age verification requirement for certain pornography websites, a move that prompted PornHub to cut off access throughout the state.
But some groups are questioning whether Catherine Hanaway has the authority under the state's consumer protection laws to go after websites that don't comply – especially since the General Assembly has yet to pass a law on the subject.
Earlier this year, then-Attorney General Andrew Bailey began the process of crafting an administrative rule that requires some form of identification, such as a government-issued ID, to access any website that contains one-third or more pornographic content. The rule went into effect on Sunday – meaning that Hanaway's office could use the Missouri Merchandising Practices Act to enforce the requirement.
"Our message is simple: If you want to operate in Missouri, you must prove your users are adults. If that is too much to ask, then you will not operate here," Hanaway said in a statement. "Missouri is leading the nation in protecting children online, and today's development shows that our leadership is working."
The new administrative rule prompted PornHub to cease operations in Missouri, with the company saying in a statement that "mandating age verification without proper enforcement gives platforms the opportunity to choose whether or not to comply."
In response, Hanaway said: "Pornhub is welcome to leave Missouri. What is not welcome is any company that puts profit above the safety of our children."
St. Louis University law professor Anders Walker said a recent Supreme Court decision upholding a Texas age verification law creates hurdles for any legal challenge.
"[The Texas case] held that protecting children is a legitimate interest, and therefore states can require that anyone who wants to view a pornographic website enter evidence of their age," Walker said. "That is not a substantial infringement either on the First Amendment or on the right to privacy."
Walker said there has been a bipartisan push for these types of measures for some time. PornHub in particular has faced immense criticism for not doing enough to prevent content featuring child pornography and sexual assault from appearing on the platform.
"The problem with adult material pornography is it has never enjoyed much constitutional protection. And frankly, a lot of the adult content online these days could be deemed obscene," Walker said. "There's a good argument that it doesn't have any artistic or literary value, and the test for obscenity is a fairly simple one. So pornography has enjoyed sort of a golden age with the rise of the internet. And I'm afraid that now people on the left and the right are starting to set the sun on that golden era."
Does Hanaway have the power?
Age verification laws have faced criticism on a multitude of fronts, including not being able to protect the privacy of users who provide their IDs to access pornography websites and having vague definitions of what constitutes pornographic content that minors shouldn't see.
But Travis Hall of the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Democracy and Technology said Missouri is notable for using an administrative rule to enforce the age verification requirement – and not a law that the legislature passed.
"We definitely have seen a broad swath of states that have passed legislation and a broad swath of states that have passed legislation that have required attorney general rulemaking, such as New York and New Jersey and California," Hall said. "But that this is purely out of a consumer protection from an unfair and deceptive practice statute, that is absolutely not something that I believe I have seen before. And I don't think it is a path that others are taking, and is a novel interpretation of 'unfair and deceptive practice.'"
Missouri lawmakers from both parties have tried to pass an age verification requirement for pornography websites, but none of those measures has gone anywhere.
In the run-up to the administrative rule going into effect, a number of groups – including the Computer & Communications Industry Association, the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and the Free Speech Coalition – questioned whether the requirement goes beyond the authority of the Missouri Merchandising Practices Act.
In response, Hanaway's office said the act does empower it to issue the requirement, adding that "age verification has long been required in brick-and-mortar stores distributing pornographic material, and Missouri's law does not differentiate between brick-and-mortar stores and the internet when it comes to prohibiting companies from providing pornographic material to minors."
"The proposed regulations merely clarify and confirm that entities distributing pornographic material on the internet also have the responsibility to verify the age of consumers," her office stated in response to criticism from groups skeptical of the new regulation.
Do the requirements work?
Hall said there are other concerns about the age verification requirements, especially in terms of their effectiveness.
While noting that large pornography websites like PornHub made themselves targets through various missteps, Hall added that other sites don't have PornHub's safety and content verification procedures.
"And if you start driving out the legitimate access to this content, it will drive people to less safe avenues," Hall said.
Hall also pointed out that while the Supreme Court upheld Texas' age verification law, that doesn't mean that litigation over these types of measures is completely over.
"There is still a really gray line in terms of what is obscene to minors, and how that line is drawn relative to adults," Hall said. "And so things like PG-13 movies certainly wouldn't be that, but could be, right?"
Others have pointed out that people can get around the age verification requirement, particularly for PornHub, if a user has a VPN that can bypass geo restrictions. Walker, though, said not everybody knows how to use VPN systems that usually cost money to access.
"People are going to find ways around this through VPNs or otherwise, and maybe we just leave it at that," Walker said. "But we will make it harder for kids to access these sites. Hanaway gets a win, and all those folks out there who sort of enjoy this material can still access it."
Copyright 2025 St. Louis Public Radio
