What do half-a-dozen major sex crimes in America have in common? According to a new documentary by Family Watch International (FWI), they often start with pornography.

Launched at the first End Exploitation summit last week, which was primarily organized by Morality in Media, “The Porn Pandemic: The Devastating Effects on Children, Family and Society” features interviews with experts on the issue of pornography and how it hurts those who view it. Pornography viewers, says the documentary, often turn their now-distorted views on life, love, and sex towards secondary victims of porn.

According to FWI president Sharon Slater, who co-founded Family Watch in 1999, the documentary “presents scientific evidence, expert commentary, and personal testimonies showing the addictive nature of pornography.” Slater also says that “porn addictions can lead to violence against women, prostitution, trafficking in persons, and sexual crimes against women and children,” which are highlighted in the video.

In the film, personal stories abound. As Slater describes it, “former porn addicts and their family members tell their stories, [and] we … learn how early exposure to pornography can lead to a long-term debilitating addiction that devastates marriage and family relationships and can lead to acting out in dangerous ways.”

“The Porn Pandemic” was inspired by the discussions at the United Nations about “family breakdowns, trafficking in persons, prostitution, and violence against women, and much more,” says Slater. “Yet never is adult pornography, which can be the root cause of many of these problems, addressed.”

Family Watch has “consultative status” with the United Nations, and Slater believes their role there can help “to bring worldwide awareness of how pornography is a root cause for many of these problems and to bring the fight to stop pornography to the United Nations, enlisting Member States at the global level to stop this scourge.”

The harm of pornography to families is devastating, says Slater. “Young children who have access to technology are being exposed to pornography, and their immature brains are not equipped to handle these images. It only takes a fraction of a second for explicit images to be permanently imprinted on the brain.” Slater says that “the majority of these images give an unrealistic distorted view of sex, most often depicting the demeaning of and violence against women.”

David Wright, a licensed professional counselor for married couples, says in the film that “90 percent of the people I see with marriage issues have pornography issues as well.”

Chemicals play a role. In the film, a certified sex addiction therapist, Everett Bailey, Ph.D., said “one transmitter is dopamine. And that’s … part of our pleasure and reward system” in our brains. “Dopamine is released whenever there is a sexual experience, and something that gives us a kind of a high in order for us to want to continue to seek out that same activity,” he says.

Slater says pornography has landed “children … in jail for trying to act out what they have seen on other children (as reported in a study done in the U.K.) as pornography viewing escalates as the brain craves newer and more extreme stimuli.” Last year, a 13-year old boy pled guilty to rape, attempted rape, and sexual assault of a girl he had committed crimes against. The boy, who was 10 at the time of the attacks — the girl was eight — was addicted to pornography at the age of nine.

According to Slater, watching pornography is not simply a matter of self-discipline. “Many of the people we interviewed report not being able to control their viewing, regardless of the consequences to them or their families. Children can have secret addictions that they carry well into adulthood that negatively impacts their ability to do well in school or at work and that negatively impacts their attitudes towards girls, and later toward their spouses, and even their ability to function sexually with real people.”

“These are all serious problems and the root cause can be pornography,” she says. And while Slater is careful to note that “many people who view pornography do not have serious addictions that lead to committing sexual crimes,” pornography is almost always part of the equation for the majority of people who commit serious sexual crimes against women and children.”

Wright says that “pornography leads to the denigration and the demeaning of women.” He describes pornography as treating women “as subservient; their only job is to serve men as a slave, or as a sexual toy, or as a prostitute.”

Likewise, Janice Shaw Crouse, Ph.D., says in the documentary that people in the United States are ignorant about the real harms of pornography against women. “They have absolutely no comprehension of the degrading aspect of so much of today’s pornography.”

Skyler, a former pornography addict who discussed his experiences with porn on the documentary, says, “All these people that I was looking at, I was making them seem like sexual objects, not people.” And this leads to problems, says Slater.

“The brain expert and the therapists in our film all talk about the escalating nature of pornography addiction, as the brain is always searching for something novel and more extreme to be satisfied,” Slater says. “Subsequent films will have the testimony of people who have committed sexual crimes against women and children or visited prostitutes, they believe, as a result of their viewing of pornography. Studies show that people who watched porn were more likely to have the opinion that women enjoy rape and the Bridges study showed that of the top 250 bestselling porn movies, a high percentage depict violence against women.”

Slater says it’s important to bring this video to the UN. “We believe as more and more people understand the inextricable link between pornography, sexual crimes, prostitution and trafficking, and the devastating impact of pornography on the brain and thus the lives of children, we can organize world governments to take on the sex industry.” Slater’s stated goal is “to stamp out this scourge that is destroying our families and thus society.” Her organization aims “to show this film at the United Nations, and to organize a First Ladies Summit to Combat Pornography.”

A number of UN diplomats have already seen the film, says Slater.

Despite all of the harms of pornography, hope exists for all involved. “‘The Porn Pandemic’ ends with a message of hope as former addicts share how they and their families have found healing and hope,” says Slater. Specifically, it was “through therapy and the support of family members” that they did this.

“Knowledge is power,” says Daniel, a former pornography addict. “I firmly believe that, especially with this addiction.”

“The Porn Pandemic” can be seen here. It is approximately 28 minutes long.