70 percent of Gen Z men say porn was first exposure to sex

A new survey from British digital publication LADbible supports the notion that, for many young people, porn is their #1 sex educator.

In a survey conducted by LADbible and consumer insights company ResearchBods in September, 45 percent of around 5,300 18-29 year olds in the UK shared that porn was one of their main sources of information about sex. Seventy percent of Gen Z men reported that porn was their first exposure to sex. It’s not surprising, then, that 77 percent want more resources to navigate porn and sex.

Sixty-three percent of respondents said they saw porn before they were 16, and five percent before 10. Half of those people who watched before 10 (so, less than three percent) became daily viewers.

The survey release is in conjunction with the launch of For F*ck’s Sake Productions, an in-house digital studio that will produce sex education content for young adults. LADbible partnered with musician and actor Jordan Stephens, sex education charity Fumble, men’s health charity Movember, and self-guided therapy program Pivotal Recovery.

The latter, Pivotal Recovery, references “porn addiction” on its website, which isn’t recognized by the latest Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5). A 2015 article in the journal Psychology of Addictive Behaviors suggested that perceived porn addiction was psychologically distressing, rather than the porn use itself. Some of the recent LADbible survey findings suggest this as well: One in two men worry they consume too much porn, and 34 percent feel guilty after watching porn.

“We know porn is controversial. It makes headlines, half of us use it as sex education, and we’re all comparing ourselves to what we see on those screens,” Stephens said in the press release. He continued that he and his partners are on a “mission to get honest about porn.”

Over three quarters (77 percent) of respondents watch porn regularly, while 12 percent reported to have never seen it.

This partnership between LADbible and others will also asking the UK government to “take action” about the impacts of porn on young adults, such as urging the government to consider mandated sex and relationships education by specialists, not teachers, for 16-18 year olds, and additional support for young people such as a national helpline or online hub for information about these topics.

According to the UK’s government website, relationships and sex education became mandatory for all secondary school students in 2020.

“Porn can be a fun way for people to explore their sexuality, but it can become a problem when mainstream porn (typically free videos showing more hardcore and violent content) forms an idea of what real-life sexual intimacy should look like,” CEO of Fumble, Lucy Whitehouse, said in the press release. “This is what we need to address — we need to speak about what’s real, and what isn’t — and we need to support young people as they explore their sexuality safely.”