Gen Z Desires Much less Intercourse in Films and TV Reveals

NSFW? No thanks! Intercourse is now not a draw for younger audiences looking for one thing edgy on the movie show.

Variety reviews that in keeping with new knowledge from UCLA’s Middle for Students & Storytellers, Gen Z viewers are bored with on-screen sexual content material. (RIP to the raunchy teen intercourse comedy subgenre.)

Launched on Wednesday (October 22), the college’s annual Teens & Screens report, which surveyed 1,500 younger adults and teenagers in August 2025, reveals 48 p.c of Gen Z viewers consider there may be “an excessive amount of intercourse and sexual content material” in fashionable motion pictures and TV reveals.

Nevertheless it’s not simply the intercourse itself that’s turning off Gen Z audiences. Over 60 p.c of viewers within the era are bored with seeing sexual attraction emphasised on the core of romantic relationships on display screen, and would like to see such relationships depicted “extra in regards to the friendship between the couple.”

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And sorry, Bella, Edward, and Jacob: Youthful viewers are completely over the entire love triangle trope, as soon as a staple of YA tales similar to Twilight and The Starvation Video games. They’re additionally not desirous to see portrayals of poisonous relationships, both, and would like more healthy representations of romance of their media.

In reality, in keeping with the information, romance ranks low (third-to-last, to be exact) on the record of subjects youthful audiences wish to see of their motion pictures and reveals.

Greater than 54 p.c of respondents shared they wish to see extra characters who aren’t all in favour of pursuing a romantic relationship, whereas practically 55 p.c wish to see extra platonic, “totally different gender friendships” of their movies and sequence.

The findings concerning Gen Z’s indifference towards intercourse scenes in leisure media could also be stunning contemplating the sexually edgy lean of so many well-liked titles geared towards teenagers and younger adults, from Superbad to Quick Instances at Ridgemont Excessive and Bottoms. Nonetheless, the information aligns with an rising generational development amongst youthful Gen Z’ers, who’re reportedly leaning more conservative than their older Gen Z counterparts and the millennial era earlier than them.