Gen Z Drives Rising Support for Pornography Restrictions in US

Pornography access and regulation have become significant cultural and political issues in the United States and beyond. In the U.S., Congresswoman Mary Miller has introduced the SCREEN Act to mandate age verification on foreign pornography websites to protect children, citing that 80% of children have access to pornography, often accidentally, with the average exposure age as low as eight years old. Following a Supreme Court ruling supporting Texas’s age verification laws, 21 states now enforce similar measures, reflecting growing concerns over pornography's cultural impact and its correlation with declining marriage and birth rates. Meanwhile, generational attitudes are shifting, with surveys showing that a majority of Gen Z, including young men, increasingly favor restricting online pornography access, challenging assumptions that younger generations are more permissive. Pornhub remains a dominant player in adult content consumption in the U.S., with a sophisticated mobile-first strategy and significant traffic, yet it faces escalating regulatory challenges and societal backlash. Internationally, debates continue around pornography's social implications, as seen in Pakistan where young people's views are divided on bans versus personal freedom, and in India where AI-generated personas connected to adult content highlight concerns about digital exploitation and defamation.