Baywatch star and former Playboy Playmate Pamela Anderson has urged men to stop watching pornography.

The actress and model teamed up with Rabbi Shmuley Boteach - an author, host and TV speaker - to write for the Wall Street Journal about the dangers of pornography.

In the joint op-ed piece, the pair discuss the problems with porn being so readily and freely available, and the negative impact it can have on relationships.

They argue it has a "corrosive effect on a man's soul and on his ability to function as husband, and, by extension, as father".

"This is a public hazard of unprecedented seriousness given how freely available, anonymously accessible and easily disseminated pornography is nowadays," they wrote.


In the article - entitled Take the Pledge: No More Indulging Porn - they urge readers to "understand that porn is for losers - a boring, wasteful and dead-end outlet for people too lazy to reap the ample rewards of healthy sexuality".

They describe statistics surrounding porn use as "terrifying," quoting data provided by the American Psychological Association.

Porn consumption rates are between 50% and 99% among men and 30% to 86% among women, they say, "with the former group often reporting less satisfactory intimate lives with their wives or girlfriends as a result of the consumption".

They describe today's younger generation as "the crack babies of porn" - children "being raised in an environment of wall-to-wall, digitized sexual images".

In a statement released on the Pamela Anderson Foundation website, the 49-year-old said she was glad to join forces with Rabbi Shmuley to raise public awareness of "the innocent lives this has destroyed".

She said: "Something must be done immediately.

"A healthy, loving sexual experience demands both intimacy and respect, both of which pornography addiction destroys."

Anderson is Playboy's most prolific cover girl, having first posed for the publication in 1989.

She graced the cover and centrefold of the magazine's final nude issue last year, after it announced it was ending the tradition of publishing nude photographs due to the availability of free images online.

Anderson has also had two sex tapes leaked, including one from her honeymoon with her then-husband Tommy Lee in 1995.

She is due to make a comeback in the big screen remake of Baywatch, also starring Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, with the film due out next year.