Research

What the studies found

One finding per page, drawn from the published source, with the sample it came from.

ExposureMost young people see porn before 15, most often without looking for it, and most see sexual violence in it before 18Among Australian 16 to 18 year olds who had seen online porn, 7 in 10 first saw it before 15, and only 22% went looking the first time. In England, more young people had seen porn on X than on porn sites, and 79% of 18 to 21 year olds who had seen it had seen sexual violence in it before 18. Reports of financial sextortion to the US child protection hotline rose from 10,731 in 2022 to more than 50,000 in 2025, and in reports made by the public, 90% of the minors whose age and sex were known were boys aged 14 to 17.
Forum claimsSix claims from quitting forums, checked against the studiesThe 90 day rewiring clock has no study behind it, and the day 7 testosterone peak comes from a retracted paper where it lasted one day. A week off porn brought no withdrawal in a trial where most watched three or four times a week. Erection problems tracked problem porn use scores more than hours watched, escalation was far more common in people who screened for problem use, and a brain-scan study found men with compulsive use wanted explicit videos more while their liking of them was not significantly higher.
PrevalenceHow many people watch porn, and how many have a problem with itNearly half of US men and about 1 in 6 US women watch porn at least once a month, and about 3 in 4 students surveyed in Bangladesh and Malaysia had been exposed to it. A US panel followed through 2020 showed no lockdown surge. How many score at risk of a problem depends on the test, from 3.2% to 16.6% of the same 75,000 or so people. Islam draws the line earlier, at the first look, and at making porn as well as watching it.
TreatmentWhat makes men seek treatment for porn use, and what the treatments tested so far didMen in a 2016 study sought treatment for what porn did to them, far more than for how often they watched. A 2025 review found that, against control groups, therapy had large effects on use and problem severity and a small one on craving. A trial of 28 men found ACT cut weekly viewing by 93%, an online course helped the 13 who answered its 6 week check, and two medicines beat a dummy pill on some interview questions but not on the main questionnaires.
RecoveryRelapse is common, the risk falls the longer a quit lasts, and most people recover in the endAddiction comes back within a year about as often as asthma and high blood pressure do. Among ex-smokers, 78% of those quit a week or less had relapsed by the next survey, about a year later, against 5% of those quit more than two years. Over a lifetime, the projected share who recover from alcohol dependence is 90.6%, though half take about 14 years. Mutual-help groups were the most used route out, but close to half used none of the services counted.
Twelve stepsTwelve-step programs kept more people sober in alcohol trials, and staying, sponsors, faith and helping others went with the gainsA 2020 Cochrane review estimates that 42 in 100 people in a structured twelve-step program stay sober for a full year, against 35 in 100 on other treatments such as CBT. Long-term studies tie the benefit to staying in longer, keeping a sponsor, growing spiritual practice and helping other alcoholics. All of it is about alcohol. We found no trial of twelve steps for pornography.
UrgesWhat to do in the minutes of an urge, when pushing it away brings it backStudents who first tried not to think of a white bear thought of it about twice as often, once asked to, as students asked to think of it from the start. Smokers taught to let an urge pass smoked less, though their urges were just as strong. Slow breathing lowered craving a little, and moderate exercise cut cigarette craving by about 35 points out of 100. A mindfulness program cut heavy drinking a year later in one trial of 286 adults, but pooled trials have not shown the same edge.
PlanningWhy people watch, what sets off craving, and what works better than willpowerStress relief was not the most common reason to watch porn, but it was the reason most tied to problem use. Cues set off craving, and craving set off by a cue went with higher odds of later use or relapse. The idea that willpower runs out shrank to almost nothing when tested properly, while if-then plans helped people reach their goals across 94 tests. In a smoking trial, quitting all at once beat cutting down first.
ObjectificationThe bikini brain scan, and whether porn makes people see others as bodiesThe famous bikini scan flashed pictures like those in advertising at 21 men for a fifth of a second, and the effect tracked their hostile sexism scores. No woman was scanned and porn was never part of it. Surveys in four countries tie porn use to looking at people as bodies, in women and men alike, and a year ahead in girls and boys. Feeling hooked adds to it in men, the only group tested. We found no study of what happens after people quit.
HarmsWhat porn use goes along with, in the person, the couple and toward othersThree reviews pooled studies on porn use and what travels with it. Problem use went with depression, loneliness and trouble managing emotions. More use went with slightly less satisfied men and no change in women, and with more sexual aggression, a link that a later review disputes. All three are correlations and most of the links are small.
Women and menHow many women watch porn, how many struggle with it, and how many ask for helpIn the US about one woman in six watches porn monthly, against about half of men. On the strictest test of problem use, men were at risk nine times as often. Women made up 4% of an online self-help trial for porn but 22% of the people taking an anonymous self-test for sex addiction, and in a Polish study of women, religious practice predicted seeking treatment more than how much they watched.
FaithRegular worship went with less drinking, drug use and suicide, and more porn went with less worshipOf 278 studies on alcohol, 240 found less drinking among the more religious, and a 2026 review of 540,712 people put the lower risk of harmful use of alcohol, tobacco or other drugs at 13%. Among 109,633 US health professionals, weekly worship went with a 68% lower risk of death from drugs, alcohol or suicide among women and 33% among men. Teenagers who worshipped weekly or prayed daily used fewer drugs as young adults. In the other direction, young people who watched more porn than before also prayed and worshipped less.
FaithWhat the studies found when faith practices were put to the testAcross 97 studies, therapy built around a client's religion did more for spiritual well-being than the same therapy without it, and as much for symptoms. Turning to God for support under stress went with doing better, and seeing God as punishing went with doing worse. Smaller studies tested daily prayer for a partner, the breath during recited prayer, gratitude and Ramadan, each with real limits.
CommunityStronger ties and a sense of purpose went with longer lives, while men's close friendships shrankAcross 148 studies, people with stronger social ties had 50% higher odds of still being alive years later, and older Americans with the weakest sense of purpose had 2.43 times the risk of dying. The share of American men with no close friends rose from 3% in 1990 to 15% in 2021. In a 2011 review of trials, changing how lonely people read others eased loneliness more than giving them more contact, though a 2021 review found no edge for that approach.
SmartphonesMost UK children own a smartphone by 11, and getting one youngest went with worse mental health laterIn 2024, 89% of UK 11 year olds owned a smartphone. In a survey of 27,969 people aged 18 to 24, 74% of women who got their first phone or tablet at 6 scored as distressed or struggling, against 46% of those who got one at 18. Most parents of children who had seen sexual images online did not know, and school phone bans cut use during the school day but not across it.
BlockersFilters did not lower teenagers' exposure and ID checks cut adults' porn time by about a tenth, while small changes to the phone moved habits a littleTeenagers in British homes with a filter were about as likely to have seen sexual material online as those without one. When US states made porn sites check ID, adults cut their time on the top 25 sites by only about 10%, because half of it was already on sites that ignored the law and, by the authors' reading, VPNs kept much of the rest. Smaller frictions did better on what they measured. A grayscale screen cut phone time by about 20 minutes a day, and putting the phone away before bed cut the time to fall asleep from 31 to 18 minutes.
RelapseMost people slip many times before a quit lasts, and what they see and hear after a slip mattersSmokers took about 30 attempts on average before one quit lasted a year. Most slips were small, and guilt after the first one did not predict relapse, though falling confidence after a slip predicted the next slip sooner. In separate experiments, a broken streak on screen halved how many people kept going, and a kind word after failure kept students working longer.
AI companionsMost teenagers have tried an AI companion. Chatbots take your side far more than people do, and heavy users ended up lonelier72% of 1,060 US teenagers had used an AI companion, and a third of users had taken something important to it instead of a person. Given 3,027 real requests for advice, 11 AI models validated the person asking 72% of the time, against 22% for the top human answers. In a four-week ChatGPT trial, the more minutes a day people chose to spend, the lonelier and more dependent on it they were at the end.
App designMost people drop a mental health app within two weeks. Texts and rewards kept more smokers going.Of new users of 59 popular Android mental health apps, a median 3.9% opened one again on day 15. In smoking trials, automated text messages raised quit rates, while apps on their own showed no clear effect. Putting money down worked for the few who agreed to it, but plain rewards reached far more people and helped more smokers overall.
MoodExercise, better sleep, a walk in parkland and a week off social media each lifted mood in trialsLow mood, stress and brooding often come before an urge, and four ordinary changes moved them in trials. Walking or jogging eased depression about as much as talking therapy, better sleep was followed by better mood, a walk in parkland cut anxiety and rumination more than a city walk, and a week off social media raised wellbeing. The evidence for each has a weak spot, and none of it is about porn.