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In a converted church in the backwaters of America lies a special school for children hooked on internet porn.

Within its walls, young boys are weaned off their addiction boot-camp style with daily chores, hours of ­therapy, lie detector tests and a ban on phones and computers.

Some call it Porn School – and it could become the model for the way Britain tackles its own wave of young online addiction.

Last week Deputy Children’s ­Commissioner Sue Berelowitz revealed the disturbing impact the websites were having on impressionable youngsters.

She said children in “every town, village and hamlet” are being exposed to graphic sexual material on home computers and mobile phones.

The effect is warping their minds and leading some to commit violent sex attacks, often as part of gangs.

The problem is already rife in the US. Porn School – or Oxbow Academy to give it its official title – opened in Wales, Utah, seven years ago.

Set among abandoned shops and run-down homes, it’s one of a handful of centres treating teenage sexual ­behavioural problems.

Despairing parents spend £5,700 a month to get their sex-obsessed ­children’s heads ­sorted out here. The ­alternative is to see them sent to a juvenile detention centre.

Oxbow is ­currently home to 24 boys aged 13 to 17. School ­director Stephen Schultz says some of the boys have gone on from obsessive porn addiction to acting out scenes in real life and ­molesting other kids.

Others have been arrested and are awaiting sentencing.

Stephen likens porn addiction to heroin abuse. “Most porn addicts get agitated when they’re deprived of their online sources,” he said.

“But one boy from Chicago actually got the shakes, like a drug abuser.

"He was in very poor shape when he arrived. He’d been on his computer 10 to 12 hours a day looking at porn.

"He wasn’t eating, he was dehydrated, had poor hygiene. He’d done nothing but watch porn.”

The cure lies in a strict daily routine. The Oxbow day begins at 6am when the boys clamber out of their bunk beds and head for the showers.

Breakfast is served in the rustic ­dining room. There are full-time ­catering staff, but the boys wash up. At weekends they do their own laundry.

Mornings are devoted to therapy. Parents are required to join in via Skype once a week and are also invited to two-day seminars every few months.

After lunch it’s time for holistic therapy, which includes horsemanship, art and music. The boys jump into minibuses to get to a second campus.

The school day proper begins at 3pm in log cabin classrooms.

With a slew of qualified high school teachers on the staff, the teenagers do the same lessons they would anywhere else.

Every pupil has access to a computer to work on, but the internet is limited to just encyclopedia pages.

Classes end at 9pm and the teens have an hour to lounge around the communal meeting room.

Like ordinary school, there is homework at weekends.

The boys are also given therapy assignments to help them address their sexual issues.

There’s also time to play sports or go horse riding. The minimum stay is three months.

Most remain a year but some have finished their high school education here.

(Image: Rex)

Mr Schultz said: “Teenagers who have indulged in inappropriate sexual behaviour have a sense of shame and will not admit everything they’ve done.

“The teenager holds his cards close to his chest. Over the first 90 days we get them to start putting those cards on the table. They go through intensive individual, family and group therapy.

"Part of their course work is a full sexual ­disclosure paper – a big questionnaire asking about everything they have done. They start to open up more and more.

“If they disclose something criminal, such as touching a neighbour’s child, we have to report that to the state where the offence was committed.

“But most states accept the child is in treatment and simply put a report on file.

"As they work through things they are under pressure to pass the polygraph lie detector test.

“They start to look at the therapist as an ally and realise they can disclose the most shameful stuff.

“Then, two months into the treatment, we administer the polygraph test.

"It is only three or four questions, to see if they have disclosed the whole truth.”

Oxbow is owned by a company that runs wilderness boot camps for troubled teenagers.

"After one was featured in Channel 4 series Brat Camp, many British kids enrolled there.

“We haven’t had anyone from Britain at Oxbow yet but we welcome foreign students,” said Stephen.

There’s a ­waiting list to get into Oxbow and plans to expand. Mr Schultz believes the problem of porn addiction is growing.

“Sex is everywhere. When I was growing up if someone said they were bisexual it was shocking,” he said.

“Now threesomes and depraved sexual behaviour is all over the internet and children see those images before they develop into adolescents.”

He believes the Porn School is the answer. Many worried parents in ­Britain may well think he is right.

THE EXPERTS: 'Centres such as this are needed here in Britain'

British child and family psychologist Melanie Gill said: "We need centres like this in the UK, and our need is growing every day.

"Porn is hugely available, and massively damaging to society.

"I have seen children at a very young age who have downloaded porn on to their phones. Because of their levels of anger and aggression, they force it on other kids.

"It's no good just saying parents need to pay more attention - these children WANT to do this.

"Once you have opened Pandora's Box and children have been inappropriately sexualised it's difficult to undo the damage."

Social worker Karin Cooke, who runs sessions with teenage porn addicts at Freedom Church in Hereford, says: "This could work in the future.

"But before that we need to raise awareness - get parents to realise what their kids are being exposed to, teach the kids it's not as straightforward as they think.

"First we need mentors in our communities to tell kids this stuff isn't right and it's not the way sex should be treated."

THE BRITISH PORN ADDICT: 'I was shown porn at 10 by my babysitter'

John was just 10 when he was first exposed to pornography. Before long, he was addicted.

The student, now 18, recalled: "My cousin was babysitting and I came in when he was watching porn on TV.

"It was pretty hardcore stuff and I'd never seen anything like it.

"He let me watch too. It became an issue when I was about 13 and around girls at school.

"I found myself thinking about those images and I started searching out online porn.

"We had a computer at home, but it was downstairs so I looked on my games console and phone.

"I watched threesomes, women on women. I wanted it more and more.

"Whenever I had a free moment I'd find a way to be alone so I could watch porn. It seemed out of my control.

"I was 15 by now and had a girlfriend and we started sleeping together.

"One day, she found some porn on my iPod and she was angry but intrigued. We watched it together.

"It made us both insecure because we just didn't live up to what we'd seen.

"Looking back, it was really twisted. My concentration at school was affected too.

"It degrades everyone, the people who make it and the people who watch it.

"I am so glad I don't have it in my life any more."

If you are worried about internet porn and your family call Childline on 0800 1111.