CTRL Agency
A digest on digital technology in the lives of young men.
Welcome to CTRL Agency, a regular digest of the latest research, policy developments, and commentary about how digital technologies shape the social, emotional, and financial lives of young men. I’m Anders Knospe, a Research and Policy Analyst at the American Institute for Boys and Men, and David’s co-conspirator here at Boys & Men Online.
Each digest will have three main sections:
CTRL Panel – Our latest updates, reflections, hopes, and worries.
The Feed – A selection of recent studies, policy developments, and opinion pieces. We’re not trying to capture everything here. We’ll aim to surface the pieces that informed our thinking, and that might change how you think, too.
Events & Funding Opportunities – An ongoing list of upcoming events, submission deadlines, fellowships, and funding opportunities.
Occasionally, we’ll share some DMs from friends. This week, we hear from Jonathan D. Cohen, author of Losing Big: America’s Reckless Bet on Sports Gambling.
Let’s dig in.
CTRL Panel
We’ve just put out a new commentary on AI companions by Dr Rupert Gill, the former head of behavioral insights at the UK telecommunications regulator Ofcom. Rupert’s report looks at how AI companions might either build or diminish young men’s social and emotional skills. He outlines a research agenda and policy framework to generate more evidence about their impact and avoid repeating the policy mistakes of social media.
We’ll also have a Substack Live with Rupert on December 17th at 2pm ET. Please RSVP here—we hope to see you there!
We’re pleased to welcome our newest student fellow, Bailey Way, who is mapping the evidence of pornography’s impact on men and boys in the United States. We’ll have more to share of Bailey’s work in the coming months.
And if you know a graduate student studying the effects of sports betting, gaming, pornography, or crypto-trading on young men, please encourage them to apply to our fellowship program. Deadline: December 15.
The Feed
Findings:
Young men increasingly favor making porn harder to access
Over the last four years, the percentage of young men who favor making online pornography more difficult to access has risen from 43% to 64%, a clear shift toward tighter restrictions. Age-verification laws offer a template for minors, but would there be support for friction-increasing policies?
Young men have thoughts on gambling regulation
A new poll from the Young Men’s Research Project finds men are more likely than women to have firm opinions about whether gambling should be reined in. They are also more likely to oppose gambling regulations.
Video game “loot boxes” act as a gateway to real-money gambling
Dutch researchers following over 500 young gamers over the course of a year found that engaging with gambling-like elements like loot boxes in video games predicts later real-money gambling. Notably, boys were significantly more likely than girls to engage with gambling-like features and to do so more frequently.
7.4% of young adults meet criteria for Internet Gaming Disorder
A recent systematic review of over 1,000 articles from Addictive Behaviors finds that 7.4% of young adults (ages 18-35) meet the criteria for Internet Gaming Disorder, listed in the DSM-5 as a condition for further study. The authors find a trend toward lower prevalence in samples with a higher proportion of women.
Policy & News
All eyes down under on social media regulation
Today, Australia banned teens age 16 and under from having social media accounts, forcing platforms to police users’ ages or face real penalties. Will cutting off accounts reduce use, or merely shift young Australians to less visible corners of the internet?
On November 30th, Missouri became the 25th state to require porn sites to verify users’ ages; on December 1st, it became the 31st state to allow residents to bet on sports online. Ed Button remarks on X: “The irony of porn sites being banned in Missouri in the name of ‘safety,' the day that sports gambling goes live in the state is not lost on me.”
From our DMs:
Takes
Are problem gamblers the only problem?
Sports betting commentary has focused on a particular horror story—like the relapsed addict who gambled through his wedding day. AIBM Fellow Isaac Rose-Berman argues we should pay more attention to the vast majority who vacillate between self-control and compulsion. These users might not show up in rehab stories or helpline data, but they vastly outnumber extreme cases, and could amount to most of the aggregate harm.
Connections → could a similar “prevention paradox” be true of porn usage? It’s hard to know, because research and commentary mostly cluster around extreme addiction and harm. But there’s reason to think that the rise of porn could have more diffuse effects, like the normalization of sexual choking.
The big social media experiment is starting. What will young men do?
Dr. Zac Seidler of Movember asks what Australia’s under-16s will do with their newfound time if they truly stop using social media. He calls for sustained funding for face-to-face and digital social connection programs that understand masculine pressures driving competition and emotional distance. Similarly, an October survey of 1,000 young men from Young Men Research Initiative finds high demand for gyms, concert venues, and parks to hang out.
Pay Attention to How You Pay Attention
Ezra Klein examines recent proposals to regulate social media, including school cell phone bans, the Education Not Endless Scrolling Act, and the Kids Off Social Media Act. But are we attempting to address yesterday’s problems as AI remakes the digital experience? Either way, Klein argues: “Absent some view of what human flourishing is, we will have no way to judge whether it is being helped or harmed.”
What else we’re reading
Smartphone Ownership, Age of Smartphone Acquisition, and Health Outcomes in Early Adolescence - Barzilay et al. in Pediatrics
Feeds, feelings, and focus: A systematic review and meta-analysis examining the cognitive and mental health correlates of short-form video use - Nguyen et al. in Psychological Bulletin
Video Games and Wellbeing: Playing Together Matters - Gallup
A leading kids’ safety bill has been poison-pilled, supporters say - The Verge
YouTube’s strengthened approach to online gambling and graphic violence in gaming - Google
Events & Funding Opportunities
FTC Workshop on Age Verification Technologies | DC | Jan 28, 2026
International Conference on Gambling & Risk Taking | Las Vegas, NV | May 26-28, 2026 | Call for abstracts closes January 23rd.
National Conference on Gambling Addiction & Responsible Gambling | Nashville, TN | July 22-24, 2026 | Call for presentations closes December 12th.
What did we miss this week? Do you have an upcoming conference or study we could feature in the next edition? Are you a researcher interested in the impacts of increased porn consumption on non-problem users? Let us know at bmonline@substack.com, or shoot me a message here.
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We’re excited to explore these issues with you.