Mount Carmel Youth Ranch has many years of working with at-risk teens. One of the realities they must address with almost every young man that comes to the ranch, is over coming internet pornography addiction.

Contact: Matt Schneider, Director, Mount Carmel Youth Ranch, 307-645-3322

POWELL, Wyoming, Nov. 5 /Standard Newswire/ -- Susan George, teacher and trained abstinent educator at the youth ranch says "Pornography is a plague that has a very grave impact on the growth and emotional maturity of every young man. Pornography isn't 'like' an addiction, it is an addiction!  It can be more dangerous than drugs in that, it is much easier to get to than drug and alcohol, now with the internet in almost every home it is just a click away."

Susan addresses this with every young man that comes to Mount Carmel Youth Ranch during the required abstinence education course. She chose the Excel curriculum created by Scott Phelps of the Abstinence and Marriage Education Partnership."It is a very effective course, that brings each of the young men to view their sexuality as a gift, and like every gift, it can be used or abused." she said "I have found that when taught the facts many of these young men want to wait to have sex until after they are married. One of the facts that I like to share with them is that while unwanted STDs and teen pregnancy should be reason enough to save sex for marriage, it is obvious that this is not powerful enough of a reason for many. What is a powerful reason to wait, is that it is a proven statistic that couples who are virgins when they get married have one of the lowest divorce rates out of any given measurable factor." She continued to share that "many of the statistics on sex and marriage show that couples who waited to have sex after they were married have a deeper sense of intimacy and trust in each other.  This makes a lot of sense to these young men, they understand the connection between trust and sex, to them it is obvious because they have seen it first hand in the people around them, those with many sexual partners are not the ones with healthy lasting relationship."

When asked what her advice would be for families who want to keep their children safe online Susan said:

1. "It is an absolute must to have a good web filter on every computer in your house! I have found the BlueCoat K9 Web Filter keeps children from accidentally going to an "adult" site. It is best to only have mom know the very complicated password so that no one else is in danger. I say this because many women do not realize how wide spread internet pornography addiction is, and men especially need to be protected from it.

2. "Monitor the web browsing history and searches on your computers. Keep the computers in a public area of your house. Do not let your children have a TV or the Internet in their own rooms. Allowing this is definitely inviting trouble!" Susan said it is important that when the family watches a movie they watch it together." Many of the young men have shared with me that they had a computer and cable TV in their rooms and that this led to getting addicted to porn."

3. "Parents need to spend time with their children talking to them about self control, and teaching them through word and example the right use of media and entertainment. It is a grave mistake to allow teens free reign with the internet and movies."

4. Susan's last words of advice: "Make time to pray as a family, we all need Gods grace to make the right choices, and to overcome our selfishness. We found that spending 20 to 30 minutes each night praying the rosary, thanking God for all of the joys and sorrows of our day, has created a very powerful bound of love in each of our hearts."

Mount Carmel Youth Ranch is a Catholic family styled program for troubled teens who are at-risk. The Schneider family has over 25 years of experience in working with teenagers and have an 85% success rate helping teenage boys make better life style choices.