On-Screen Smoking 'Single Largest Media Threat' to U.S. Children's Life-Long Health

Newswise — While headlines have focused on violent video games and Web predators, the single greatest media threat to U.S. kids comes from tobacco-laced movies and videos according to James Sargent, MD, FAAP, and Stanton Glantz, PhD. As discussed today at the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) National Conference and Exhibition (NCE), three major population studies between 1999-2004 display a striking dose-response by adolescents to on-screen smoking in movies and videos: the more smoking children see on screen, the more likely they are to become smokers. In 2004, 75 percent of popular G, PG and PG-13 movies featured smoking. From one-third to one-half of all new young smokers are primarily recruited by viewing tobacco use in films and videos, a total of about 390,000 kids each year. In an effort to reduce the number of adolescents' Hollywood influences due to smoking in films and videos, Drs. Sargent and Glantz developed the Smoke Free Movies campaign. The campaign includes giving new movies with on-screen smoking an R-rating and airing anti-smoking advertisements before any film containing tobacco use. Numerous health organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, now endorse the R-rating tobacco use in future films.