Almost half of gen Z viewers want less sex on screen, study finds

Sydney Sweeney in Euphoria. Today’s adolescents want less of the sex and trauma of the kind seen in the HBO show. Photograph: HBO

Less sex and more friendship – that’s the verdict of gen Z on their preferences for US media, according to a new study by the Center for Scholars and Storytellers (CSS) at UCLA.

According to the center’s annual Teens & Screens report, today’s adolescents want less of the sex and trauma seen in shows such as HBO’s Euphoria and The Idol, and more storylines reflecting “lives like their own”, namely more platonic relationships and less of a focus on romance.