Should Movies With Cigarettes Be Rated R?

(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.

[TobaccoDeath]

Movies with naked people and sexual content never killed anyone. They are R rated. This is a no-brainer. Any film showing tobacco in a positive way should be R rated or even X rated! The tobacco industry MURDERED 5.4 million people last year. They need to get 3,000 children A DAY to try their product which KILLS when used as it is supposed to be used to replace all their dead victims. Smoking is NOT a normal accepted behavior. Nicotine is 6 times more addictive than cocaine and heroin combined. How else will the tobacco industry get their new addicts if they don't subliminally make children believe that smoking is not only accepted but attractive by showing glamorous people in the movies smoking? I dream of never having to see another movie with smoking in it. I would prefer watching someone stick a piece of excrement in their mouth and eat it. Smoking is DISGUSTING to watch and KILLS 500,000 Americans every year. It killed 10 of my friends and family in the past two years. Most of them from SECONDHAND smoke. Children aren't that smart. It doesn't take much to make them believe that "reality" is the beautiful person with a cigar or cigarette in their hand... not the wrinkly, sick, cancer ridden, hole in the throat person in the cancer ward who died of their addiction to these weapons of mass destruction....

[Ygak]

you are a ******* retard. get off your high horse and stop telling people how to live. tobacco industries don't kill people, they don't choose people to smoke, everyone has a brain and they make their own decisions. you have no brain, you just don't smoke so you you want everyone to be like you. go **** yourself you ******.

[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.

[dylanxxv]

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

[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 !

[enriquecaliente]

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

[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.

[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!"

[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.

[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

[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.