A New Report Shows That Gen Z Wants Less Sex & Romance In Their TV & Movies

A lot of us parents from the Gen X and Millennial eras have stereotypes in our heads about Gen Z kids (aged about 12 to 24). We picture them always on their screens watching 30-second YouTube Shorts and not really understanding the beauty of a night at the movie theater or anticipating a TV show season finale.

But UCLA’s 2025 Teens and Screens annual report just dropped, and it contains some surprising information about our kids and their watching habits.

First and foremost? Teens and tweens still love TV shows and movies. A full 57% said that they watch traditional content than their parents think they do — and they talk about it to their friends more than they talk about social media shorts.

And while the theater industry continues to struggle in the years after the pandemic, Gen Z reported that their top media activity for the weekend was going to a movie theater with friends.

Gen Z is also sending another strong message in the report: they are tired of forced romantic storylines between characters and could do with less sex on screen. Instead, they want to see more developed platonic friendships between genders. In fact 54% of kids surveyed wanted different-gendered characters to “prioritize their friendship instead of turning it into a romantic relationship.”

Almost half — 48.4% — of participants said that there is “too much sex and sexual content in TV and movies.” And an even greater 60.9% expressed a desire to see romantic relationships depicted as “more about the friendship between the couple than sex.”

It’s part of a larger trend that teens just want to see their real lives reflected on the screen.

“Teens are telling us loud and clear – they’re ‘over’ forced and unrealistic romantic storylines,” Alisha Hines, Center for Scholars & Storytellers vice president of research and programs said in a press release about the report. “Our findings show that what they really want is content, characters and friendships that feel real and reflect everyday experiences they can authentically relate to.”

The report surveyed 2,000 kids between the ages of 10 and 24 and has been tracking teens’ feelings on the media for years.

The UCLA study reflects a few things we already know about Gen Z. They are a generation that was more sheltered than the latchkey kids that came before them — and also a generation more likely to have been affected by the isolation of the 2020 pandemic. The result is a group of kids who don’t party like we did, don’t drink like we did, and don’t have sex like we did.

The reasons are complex, but they have more anxiety and feel more alone than generations that came before. Maybe that’s why they’re really craving deep and meaningful friendships — and portrayals of reality — when it comes to their TV and movies.