New polling has found that Generation-Z men are turning against porn. According to the Survey Center on American Life, men aged 18-24 are more likely to support restrictions on online pornography than most of their older counterparts.

The survey reveals that 64% of “Zoomer” men — who are five times more likely than young women to watch porn — want to make it more difficult to access adult content online, a figure only surpassed by those over 55. This result was mirrored by the young women surveyed, who were more anti-porn than millennial women. Support for restrictions on graphic material was higher among women than men in every age cohort studied.

Gen Z has been deemed “the most conservative generation in history”, and these results speak to a change in the social trends of liberalisation which have defined the last 50 years. Young people are widely reported to be having less sex than their elders did at the same age, and almost half of them don’t drink alcohol.

This shift in attitudes is already being reflected in legislation both in the US and abroad. Utah Senator Mike Lee introduced a bill in March which would ban all online pornography at a federal level. Currently, more than a third of states have age-verification laws in place. In France, porn websites are currently fighting stricter user age-verification requirements in court, and even went offline for a three-week “strike” to protest the changes. Meanwhile, a bill to restrict choking in X-rated videos is currently passing through the House of Commons, and age restrictions on pornographic websites have already come into effect across the UK.

The polling also found that Americans are lonelier than ever. Only 45% of the single men surveyed reported receiving any physical attention in the last week, while only 15% have gone on a date “recently”. This finding dovetails with a broader decline in socialising, with 13% fewer people visiting third spaces such as bars and cafes than before the pandemic.

In the last year dissatisfaction with dating apps has grown, with 1.4 million people leaving matchmaking services in favour of more spontaneous connections. This is more pronounced among Gen Z, with Forbes reporting that 79% of 18 to 26-year-olds are experiencing dating app “burnout”. In response to falling numbers, apps have gamified further in an attempt to maintain young users, with more features placed behind paywalls.

It is not just on porn that Americans — particularly from younger age groups — are turning more socially and politically conservative. The report says that more Americans support mass deportations of illegal immigrants than did a decade ago and, compared to 2020, more Americans think the country has done enough to give equal rights to gay and lesbian people. “On numerous salient cultural issues,” it claims, “the public is changing course.”