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A growing number of young American men are turning against pornography, according to a July 29 report by Sean Fischer for The Free Press.
Fischer’s report focuses on the rise of Quittr, a self-improvement app designed to help men stop watching porn. The app, launched in 2024 by Connor McLaren and Alex Slater, aims to help men quit pornography using daily check-ins, content blockers, and motivational tools.
“The porn industry is just so destructive,” said McLaren, 23. “Their only motive is profit.”
He framed the stakes in stark terms: “How do you destroy society? You destroy society by destroying men,” he said. “If every man is addicted to porn, it ruins their relationships. It ruins their lives. You’re creating weak men with no energy levels. Who can’t talk to women. Can’t do anything. Can’t stand up for themselves.”
In response, Quittr encourages users to rethink their habits and commit to personal growth.
Fischer reported that nearly one million people have downloaded the app, and there are around 100,000 paying users. The team has grown it without outside investors, relying instead on influencer partnerships and grassroots promotion.
Their goal, the creators say, is to empower users to “grow stronger, healthier, and happier.”
Slater, a 19-year-old coder from London, noted that many users download Quittr because they want to improve their relationships.
“We remind them of this every time they try to relapse again,” he said, referring to user-written goals like becoming a better partner or spouse.
The cultural shift Quittr taps into may be broader than the app itself. Fischer cites a recent survey showing that nearly two-thirds of men under 25 favor making online pornography harder to access — a significant increase from 2013. He links this shift to the popularity of self-help influencers among young men, many of whom promote discipline, fitness, and emotional resilience.
While Quittr is not explicitly faith-based, McLaren acknowledged that many users identify as Christian or Muslim. The app includes an option to incorporate a “higher power” into a user’s recovery journey, and the founders have actively partnered with Christian influencers to promote the app.
One such influencer, Caleb Hammet, told his nearly two million Instagram followers that after quitting porn, “I feel more confident, I feel better when I’m talking to girls, I feel better just in my skin.”
Slater noted the trend is reaching users under 18 too, saying, “It’s affecting them enough to be convinced by an ad to download a quitting-porn app at such a young age.”
For McLaren and Slater, the app is just the beginning. Fischer reported that the two said they would “love to” one day buy the porn site OnlyFans — currently valued at around $8 billion — just to shut it down.
