The app tackling porn addiction

Yet while the digital wellness industry is projected to hit $1.5 trillion by 2030, it "has long tiptoed around one of the most stubborn and stigmatised issues of our time", said LA Weekly: "compulsive consumption of adult content". Until now.

'Therapy, gamified'

Founded by British teenager Alex Slater and his American business partner Connor McLaren last year, porn abstinence app Quittr has already passed a million downloads from more than 120 countries and has around 100,000 paid users, according to McLaren.

Quittr's "meteoric rise is no accident", said LA Weekly. The app blends "behavioural science, habit-formation theory, and cutting-edge technology to create a recovery experience that's as effective as it is engaging".

Every day subscribers renew their pledge not to watch porn, instead choosing goals such as stronger relationships, more energy or a better sex life. The core offering is a "panic button" that shames users about to relapse. The app also offers AI chatbots and exercises that rewire the brain, and access to a huge support network.

"It's therapy, gamified; discipline, democratised," said Tech Times, and it appears to be paying off. Quittr says it boasts a 41% one-year abstinence rate, "more than triple the industry average for digital recovery tools".

Because it is promoted predominantly through influencers and social media, most subscribers are under 40, and a significant number are under 18. Research suggests many young adults encounter porn from the age of 12.

Having started with just $3,000 of the founder's own money, Quittr is set to record almost $3 million in total revenue this year. "When porn is an industry worth tens of billions of dollars", it shows that when done right "the anti-porn business can also be pretty lucrative", said The Times.

From immoral to self-improvement

Quittr is part of the wider porn abstention movement, driven by a growing understanding of the impact it is having on young men.

Rather than the traditional objections over morality or unethical treatment of performers, now the emphasis of the anti-porn movement is on consumers' own "self-improvement", said Financial Review. "Popular podcasters and influencers" argue that watching porn can "lead to unrealistic sexual expectations" for young men and "weaken their drive and motivation by messing with their dopamine levels".

Leading the pushback against porn in male online spaces is the NoFap community, which encourages men to abstain from masturbation with the promise of better interpersonal relationships and higher testosterone levels. Like Quittr it promotes the benefits of improved focus and more time to pursue individual goals.

"This is Gen Zers trying to say, 'I'm fed up with being played, and my life feels out of my control'," said psychologist Zac Seidler, the global head of research for men’s health charity Movember. "And I think that it ties in and overlaps extensively with the notion of purpose and meaning and self-development and growth, which is really flourishing among young guys."