An epidemic of teenagers hooked on smut has spawned a burgeoning new industry - live-in "porn camps" to help kids kick the habit.

Newly founded Mount Pleasant Academy, based in central Utah, has opened its doors to school-age boys struggling to control their online pornography obsession, while the nearby Oxbow Academy has expanded to a second campus to accommodate rising enrollments.

Oxbow director Stephen Schultz said the camps are meeting a growing need of a generation bombarded by easily accessible porn that's more graphic than ever.

Porn has become more potent even in just the last year or so, added Mount Pleasant program director Manuel Zizumbo, and the proliferation of smartphones has given teenagers unprecedented access.

"They're wired everywhere they go. They can get this on their iPhones now, not like a few years ago," Zizumbo said.

"It's killing us. When a young man or woman gets ahold of this stuff and they start chasing this dopamine high, they stop going to school, their relationships are sabotaged, their intimacy levels drop - everything just becomes skewed." Dopamine is a neurotransmitter associated with addictive behavior.

The programs are based on the principle that outdoor exercise and academic learning are the best distractions for porn-addled young brains. Students are encouraged to play sports, camp, fish and go horseback riding when they're not studying or getting group and one-on-one therapy.

Longer-term students can even receive a high school diploma from the institutions, which attract troubled youth from around the world.

"It's chronic with most of these kids," said Zizumbo. "By the time they come here, they're like, 'I have a problem. I don't know what to do and I can't control it. I can't quit.'"

At $6,500 per month, Mount Pleasant accommodates boys as young as 12 for up to nine months. It was founded this year after issues with pornography kept emerging in other treatment centers for troubled boys.

"We realized we had to create something specific," Zizumbo said.

Utah has been at the forefront of anti-pornography efforts in the United States and is home to some of the most vocal campaigners, including the Utah Coalition Against Pornography. In 2005, then-Gov. Jon Huntsman signed legislation that required Internet providers to block pornography sites, although parts of the laws have since been overturned after heated petitioning by the American Civil Liberties Union.

Oxbow Academy, founded in 2006, expanded to a second campus late last year, and now at any given time houses as many as 42 boys between the ages of 12 and 19.

Within 90 days, new Oxbow students are given polygraph tests to help them confess the extent of their obsession with X-rated materials. While some students have committed sexual offenses, others are referred by worried parents or counselors.

"All of the kids at Oxbow have pornography issues. That's 100 percent," said Schultz. "It's crucial we find out the extent of their behavior as soon as we can. Because of the shame and embarrassment and fear of being caught, kids will hold on to that information." He said boys from adoptive homes seem particularly prone to pornography addiction and make up a disproportionate share of enrollments.

An Oxbow student who did not want to be identified by name said he was watching pornography on his Nintendo DS for up to nine hours a day before attending the camp.

"What's weird is I can operate off two hours of sleep and not look like I'm tired," he said. "Whenever I was around [my parents], I was 'playing games' - they thought I was just doing it to have fun."

Another student said, "I was in a state of torment. I knew I needed to stop. It was horrible. I couldn't stop. I didn't have enough self-control to tell my parents or to get myself help."

Often, the problem is no easier on the parents of addicted teens. "You can't talk to anyone about it, because it's kind of embarrassing," said the parent of an Oxbow student. "You almost wish your kid was a drug addict because you could talk to someone about that."

The recovery process begins with a strict, active schedule. A typical day begins at 6 a.m. - breakfast followed by therapy and academic classes until 9 p.m. About 15 students have finished their high school education at Oxbow, and the academy helps students prepare college applications.

Weekends are for homework and a slew of activities including sports, camping and art. All Oxbow students also are required to participate in "equine experiential therapy," in which they interact with horses in a confidence-boosting exercise.

Both Oxbow and Mount Pleasant have a secular approach to therapy, although they do encourage students to practice their faith if it helps.

"We've had Catholics, Jewish students, Muslims ... everyone," Schultz said.

Research shows graphic sexual images can flood the brain with pleasure chemicals including dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin and epinephrine, said Clay Olsen, co-founder of Fight the New Drug, a non-profit spreading awareness about porn addiction among youth.


The brain rewires itself to accommodate the extra chemicals and, after building up a tolerance, goes from wanting the chemicals to needing them.

"This is more of a public health issue than a moral issue," Olsen said.

Olsen or one of his three co-founders have spoken at more than 50 school assemblies in Louisiana, Idaho and Utah in the last year and have six official University chapters across states including Michigan and Texas.

Meanwhile, more than 20 young people per day are signing up for the group's free online treatment course, Fortify, which is set to launch before the end of the year.

"We're not trying to attack the porn industry itself," Olsen said. "We respect First Amendment rights and understand that people have to right to view it and produce most forms of it."

"We just feel that more people would avoid it if they knew what it was doing to them."

Mount Pleasant Academy is a non-profit Treatment Center designed to assist adolescents and families who may be struggling with compulsive sexual behaviors, sensitive sexual issues, and/or digital addictions. It is a 16 bed facility for males ranging from ages 12 - 18 years.