'R' Rating Urged for Smoking in Movies

New Push to Fight Movie Industry's Sway over Teen Smoking

By Daniel J. DeNoon
WebMD Health News

Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD

Oct. 9, 2006 -- There is a new push to give an "R" rating to all movies that depict smoking.

Why? Every year, nearly 400,000 kids start smoking due to the influence of movies. The finding was highlighted at this week's meeting of the American Academy of Pediatrics, held Oct. 7-10 in Atlanta.

Can you really tell whether smoking portrayed in movies makes kids start smoking? Yes, says James Sargent, MD, director of the Cancer Prevention Research Program at Dartmouth Medical School in Lebanon, N.H.

Since 1996, Sargent and colleagues have analyzed movies for smoking content. They've also been finding out which movies kids have seen, and whether they smoke.

After accounting for factors linked to smoking behavior and moviegoing frequency, they find that kids who see the most onscreen smoking are more than 2.5 times more likely to start smoking than kids who see the least onscreen smoking.

Movies Influence Smoking

The numbers are striking. Kids who watched very few movies hardly smoked at all. But among the 5% of kids who saw the most onscreen smoking, 40% had started smoking themselves.

There's less smoking in movies than there used to be. But this is mostly due to less smoking in movies already rated "R" or higher. In youth-rated movies, there's been no less smoking.

Sargent -- backed by the American Academy of Pediatrics -- strongly urges the film industry to adopt four rules proposed by the University of California, San Francisco "Smokefreemovies" campaign:

Movies that portray smoking should be rated "R."
Movies should certify that they received nothing of value from anyone in exchange for portraying tobacco use or tobacco products.
Movies should run strong antismoking ads before any film that portrays smoking or tobacco products.
Movies should ban the display of any brand of tobacco.

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