X-Rated Internet Addiction

Mark Searles is a family man, an insurance inspector, a devout Christian and a recovering Internet porn addict.

"It's just you and the computer, there's no one to tell you no," Searles told CBS News science and technology correspondent Daniel Sieberg.

Mark says for nearly a year he would sneak onto the home computer and indulge his fetishes — for several hours at a time.

What I'm doing I know is wrong, but it kind of pulls you in. When you become an addict you forget about everything else, all reasoning gets put on the back burner.

But Mark's dirty little secret all came crashing down one day when his wife discovered some of the web sites he'd been surfing.

"I was a combination of sad and angry and disappointed and hurt, just a world of emotions," Kim Searles said.

The world of pornography has clearly changed. Buying porn used to mean risking embarrassment. Today, porn is consumed in private, online, by an estimated 40 million Americans.

Addiction to Internet pornography often isn't dealt with simply because nobody wants to talk about it, which means they often don't get any help. But now, thanks to one group, people are starting to talk about it — in places like a church in Fort Wayne, Ind., over breakfast.

The gathering is called "porn and pancakes."

"We wanted to create a safe place where people can go to get help and realize they're not the only ones," said Youth Minister Craig Gross.

Gross founded a virtual ministry, xxxchurch.com. He takes his traveling roadshow to churches across the country, using his sills as a pastor, along with some slick videos, Craig hammers home the ills of porn.

"We think that there's a world that's kinda gone astray when it comes to this industry and we wanna talk to you," Gross preached.

Some people here just want to head off problems before they start. At the church in Fort Wayne, two fathers who brought their teenage sons.

"It's going to come into your life, if you don't think it will you're just kidding yourself," said Jim Villers. "If you think it's not going to come into your kid's life, you're kidding yourself."

How common is it for your friends to be surfing porn online or on a cell phone?

"Oh, it's like every day," said Villers' son Skyler.

One study found almost half (47 percent) of Christian families reported Internet porn as a serious problem.

In the case of Mark and Kim, their marriage survived. Mark says he has remained clean, though it can be a struggle.

"As long as my heart beats and my body functions I'm always gonna deal with it from the standpoint that's my design as a guy, I'm turned on sexually by sight," Searles said.

Like other addictions, getting off online pornography begins with admitting an obsession — sometimes with a little higher help along the way.