Smoking to influence movie classifications....

May 11, 2007 - Smoking to influence movie classifications.... US, Friday, May 11, 2007—Smoking is to become one of the factors considered when movies in the US are given viewer classifications. These classifications, which determine audience age restrictions, can have enormous impact on box office returns. But not all movies with smoking scenes will be given an R rating as some people had advocated. An R rating excludes all people under 17 unless they are accompanied by an adult, and is presumably intended to stop those under 17 seeing things they would not normally see as part of their daily lives. In announcing the new arrangements, the Motion Picture Association of America’s (MPAA) chairman and CEO, Dan Glickman, and the MPAA film rating system had existed for nearly 40 years as an educational tool for parents to assist them in making decisions about what movies were appropriate for their children. “It is a system that is designed to evolve alongside modern parental concerns,” he said. “I am pleased that this system continues to receive overwhelming approval from parents, and is consistently described as a valuable tool they rely upon in making movie-going decisions for their families. With that in mind, the rating board chaired by Joan Graves will now consider smoking as a factor — among many other factors, including violence, sexual situations and language—in the rating of films.” The MPAA oversees the Classification and Ratings Administration jointly with the National Association of Theatre Owners. (Tobacco Reporter) Exposure to movie smoking among US adolescents aged 10 to 14 years: a population estimate. Sargent JD, Tanski SE, Gibson J., Pediatrics. 2007 May;119(5):e1167-76.Connection between smoking in movies and smoking initiation among adolescents shows that exposure to smoking in popular films is a primary risk factor in determining whether young people will start smoking. Dr. Cornelia Pechmann of UC Irvine, has showed that teens were more likely to smoke after viewing onscreen smoking.