Should Movies With Cigarettes Be Rated R?

Study Says Children Who Watch Movies With Them Are More Likely To Smoke

(CBS)  Most parents know about protecting their kids from X-rated language and images on the Internet and in movies, but should they also be worried about protecting them from movies where people smoke cigarettes?

Researchers say that when it comes to smoking, life imitates art. A new study published this month in The Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine tracked more than 6,500 kids between the ages of 10 and 14, over a two-year period. Dartmouth researchers say young people who had the greatest exposure to smoking scenes are twice as likely to become "established" smokers.

"Movies are the single largest influence getting kids to smoke today, more powerful even than parenting role models and even cigarette advertising," Professor Stanton Glantz, of the Medical School at the University Of California, San Francisco, told CBS correspondent Jeff Glor.

The study lit a fire under anti-smoking advocates many of whom believe there is a simple solution: all movies with smoking should be rated R.

"I think Hollywood is smart enough and creative enough to make good movies that they're selling to kids without promoting tobacco," Glanz said.

Although Glantz says that number could be cut in half if those movies are given an R rating, not everyone is blaming Hollywood.

"It's the same thing as if you say, 'Oh, you let kids play video games and they'll become violent.' I don't believe that," movie-goer Susanne Vogel said. "I believe every person has their own particular choice."

The Motion Picture Association of America announced new rules this year. Smoking will now be considered a factor when they rate movies. However, smoking won't guarantee an R rating.

[bombadil4]

That''s the great thing about global warming--we''ll be more comfortable smoking outside in the winter, especially outside the theater while we wait for the next moronic, gore-filled, rip-em-up flick to start. Rated PG of course for "perfectly godawful." Smoke em if ya got em baby.

[stage8]

How absolutely ridiculous, giving a film an R rating because of an actor smoking. I swear, this country is so censor-happy.

[misssuzq]

The movies are another way for the cig companies to advertise, since they cannot any other way, so a big no to allowing a ton of screen time to someone smoking and maybe to the R rating.

[oleander8]

Dumb, dumb, dumb. That''s like refusing to have *** education in schools because it would promote sexual activity. Ignorance is not bliss - it''s dumb.

[jshmks]

Yea, let''s make movies with knives R rated too. I mean she was just making a PBJ sandwich but I feel like stabbing someone now.

[luckytam221]

When kids see there idols smoke that makes them think that it is cool and that they need to be just like them. But that also means that they need to take them out of the cartoons too.

[kaviz]

If they are going to R rate smoking for those reasons, then they should also do it for consumption of alcohol, extramarital affairs, eating of unhealthy foods, devil worship, S&M, shooting any type of weapon etc. etc.

[bmaylisa]

Why is it that the real true national pastime in this country - is forcing other people to live the lives we demand they live? Who has the right to pass these judgments - much less laws??? If you want to make this kind of garbage fair, you ban all obese people from bakeries, ban all perfumes from being worn in public, only allow certain words to be spoken and know that if you speak words we don''t like, we''ll drive you out of every freedom this country pretends to hold dear. While we''re at it, I don''t drink alcohol, so let''s ban it for the world!!! Let''s just force our religious beliefs down the throats of everyone else in the country, by making them law.

You know where this all ends? We become just like the middle eastern countries we hold as examples of bad behavior - intolerant, judgmental, demanding - hideous! Our intolerance brings us one step closer to passing a law making it OK to simply kill those who disagree with us, since, after all, we''re just "absolutely right" and everyone else is "absolutely wrong!" What pompous ***** lead this country!!!!!!

[gill_bold]

The tobacco companies have invested millions to get smoking onto the big screen. R-rating smoking isn''t about keeping kids out of movies. It''s about keeping producers out of bed with Big Tobacco. Let''s hope CBS sibling Viacom, which owns Paramount and Dreamworks, watches CBS News.

[tcoleman12]

Do you think that watching Desperate Housewives makes people want to go out and have affairs? Watching Cops makes them want to go rob a store or run from the Police? How about watching World Poker Tour, they going to get addicted to gambling?
If you want to see infringements on your freedoms through censorship, watch what these fringe groups want to keep away from the public.
If smoking is so bad, make it illegal

[kaviz]

gill gill gill, I''m not sure what your point was. Smoking is a part of life. To produce realistic movies is going to include smoking, along with many other legal activities some people would prefer their children to be sheltered from. The best you can do is discuss what your kids see on TV, instead of trying to sensor programing so you dont have to participate in your childs viewing time.

[ecuadoriana]

When I was growing up in the 60''s I lived with two parents who smoked (often putting groceries back if they didn''t have enough money for the 2 cartons of cigs), & had many other adult family members who smoked. I also was (still am) a huge movie buff. As a child in the 60''s I was fascinated by the "silver screen" & particularly loved films from Hollywood''s glamorized smoking days of the 40''s & 50''s. Most of my friends in high school smoked & most adults I knew smoked.

I''m almost 50 yrs old & I''ve never touched a cigarette.

Why? Self control, self respect, self awareness.

A label on a film, warning of sceenes of smoking, is as about insulting as it gets. I''ve never ran out & had unprotected s-x just because I saw actors bed hop in films, nor have I done drugs because I''ve seen that depicted in films. I''ve also never shot or stabbed anyone, blew up planes, drove my car off a cliff, robbed a bank, or any other act of stupidity- just because it was on the silver screen.

Kids are not going to run out & light up a cigarette just because they saw an actor smoke in a movie. If that''s the case- maybe most families should come with some sort of warning label.

"Hey Kids- Government Studies have shown that your Parents May be Harmful to Your Health. Proceed With Caution!"

[pacvol]

If they are then I guess we need to do so with alchoholic beverages so the intoxicated can cause traffic accidents leading to serious injury or death. Guess race car driving should be too because of the ads on the race cars and the excessive speed and dangerous driving. Shall we put all automobiles, trains , planes, cycles, etc. since the fumes cause so much polution and explosions are also deadly. What about guns and ammunition? Drugs? This list can go on and on. It started with one person who did not like tobacco. We came here fom England for our freedom. Now look at our country. Our youth have no upbringing mainly because of religion going out of our schools. Our taxes and freedom of speech are worse now than what we fled for. We have no employment because we buy all our junk from foreign countries because our companies have almost all moved overseas. Guess R really works.

[enriquecaliente]

Not unless you also bad, car chases, gratuitous ***, graphic violence and cursing.

[jacksteen1]

I think ecuadoriana''s comment deserves applause; my little sister and I followed my Dad''s lead and were smokers for dozens of years...our children, as well as our other, non-smoking siblings'' kids, did not smoke...why ? Perhaps becuae Uncle and Auntie stunk and coughed too much!

Happy to report we''re ALL smoke-free now, but we try not to be Nazis about the whole *** thing.

I actrually think that movies starring any adherents to the twisted cult of greed and death, $cientology, should be rated X, and all theatergoers should be warned that their ticket price reflects monies that Tiny Tom Cruise, his gay pal Vinne Barbarino, or any of the other sad-eyed losers in Hollyweird that subscribe to that pitiful cult''s sci-fi mumbo-jumbo written over 50 years ago by a pill-popping drunk.

This outfit displays much more of a threat to our youth than any cigarette I know of.

BAN $CIENTOLOGY now !

[dylanxxv]

I say keep your kids in a bubble inside your homes...Keep them away from the real world...

[hermit22]

tatoo "STUPID" on every smokers forehead and see if that helps. hollywierd if full of hipocrites. they advertized the "glamourous" smoking and coverup and hide the facts about the cancer ward.