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Study: Smoking In Movies Does Influence Smoking With Teens
I’m not one of these anti-smoking nazis. I think smoking is a severely dumb ass thing to do to yourself, but hey, that’s your business. As long as you don’t do it around me, I’ve got no problem with it. I’ve also been against this whole crusade to get smoking out of movies. To me that’s just ridiculous. Movies in part reflect the world we live in. If people smoke in the world we live in, then it’s dishonest and a twisting of reality to purposefully eliminate that from films.
However, if it can be shown that smoking in movies is actually having a negative effect on teenagers… should that issue be revisited? Well, one study is now suggesting there is a link to smoking in movies and smoking in teenagers. The folks over at M&C give us this:
The researchers coded displays of smoking in 532 hit movies in the five years prior to the survey, then asked the teens if they had seen a random selection of 50 of these movies. Follow-up interviews to assess smoking status were done after eight months, 16 months and two years.
At the beginning of the study, 5,637, or 90 percent, of the teens had never smoked, while 33 had smoked more than 100 cigarettes. By the 2-year follow-up survey, 125 of the participants had become established smokers. The study, published in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, found adolescents who were below the midpoint of movie smoking exposure were less likely than teens who were above the midpoint to have smoked more than 100 cigarettes.
The study was conducted at The Dartmouth Medical School in Lebanon, N.H.
So the question once again is… if (and that’s a huge if) it can be scientifically shown that smoking in the movies does cause higher rates of teenagers to start smoking… should we be willing to consider phasing smoking out of movies today?
Well, it shouldn’t be outlawed completely obviously. That’s censorship. But studios should be encouraged to include it as they (should) include nudity. In context, used appropriately. And more importantly without glamorisation.
There was a discussion about this on “Attack of the Show” and they had a guy from CHUD.com trying to totally poke holes in this. Of course it was some ~30 year old guy with no kids trying to make pronouncements regarding the (non) effects of smoking in movies on children/teens.
Vic
No, and for all the reasons you stated. Movies are a reflection of our reality (most movies), and so it’ll be stupid to ban smoking. They may as well ban Hip-hop videos and guns in movies since they also influence teens.
The study seems a bit flawed. They surveyed teenagers, and as they got older, it’s inevitable that at least some would start smoking. The truth is, teens are more influenced by their peers than they are by movies. Smoking always starts as a social thing, then manifests into a full-blown addiction.
Like I said, Ivy-league Dartmouth’s study is flawed to a certain extent. John, you’ve been viewing movies since you were a child. And I’m sure along the way you’ve seen a few movies that had smoking. Does this mean you turned into a smoker? I think not.
Basically, the most influential thing when it comes to teens and smoking is, well, teens. Sometimes teens hang out with OLDER people (because it’s cool), and they pick up the habit from there. MANY teens I know began smoking at the age of 15, and their parents didn’t care, at all. And those teens that I do know who began smoking at such a young age all have one thing in common. They hung out with the older, druggie/party crowds.
If a character on the screen smokes – then they smoke
Next!
Move on please
I’m in my late teens and I’ve got friends who smoke – I can absolutely guarantee you it had nothing to do with the movies. I think if you’re going to blame anything, it’s a by-product of teenage rebellion, peer pressure and also just plain curiosity.
Ultimately, when you’re in your teens you’re old enough to know the risks associated with smoking. If you’re a 14-15 year old who is so easily influenced that seeing a character light up on a movie screen is enough to encourage you to start doing the same, I’d suggest you probably have bigger problems on your hands.
“They may as well ban Hip-hop videos and guns in movies since they also influence teens.”
Dude, if you think that rap (hip-hop) videos don’t influence teens you’re living on another planet.
Vic
Teenagers are dumb as fuck. This is a fact. Shouldn’t affect my movies, though.
I’m fiercely against smoking; I’m allergic to tobacco smoke and absolutely hate getting even a whiff of it when I’m out in public. I think it’s stupid and no one should be doing it, especially around me. But I see no reason to change the way people make movies because of teenagers making bad decisions (regardless as to whether or not those decisions were influenced by Hollywood). Censorship is no replacement for decent parenting and positive role models in a teen’s life.
Everything in this world has an influence on you, be it minor or major. We are given choices, and with that comes making some really stupid ones. Teens do anything to feel older, rebellious, or look “cool”.
The thing about the blame game is, you can blame everyone and everything for something you do want to take responsibility for, no matter how logical, or stupid the situation is.
Society is so fucking damaged I just want to curl up into a ball and hide in a dark secluded box sometimes.
ScreenRant.com,
If you think that I added that because I DON’T think rap music affects teens, then you’re mistaken. Why else would I put that? I was implicating other things that influence teens in a negative way.
what I’m saying is that if they believe smoking on screen makes teens smoke, thus, doing something harmful, then they should remove everything else that they think is bad.
Rap, ESPECIALLY is bad for teens. It makes these stupid, rich assholes think that they are somehow thugs. Rap is the most idiotic form of music ever created. And it DOES influence teens, in a VERY bad way.
Read carefully next time before making assumptions. Anyone who knows me KNOWS how much I HATE hip-hop. I don’t even consider it music. It’s more of a joke.
I’m more into black metal!
I do not smoke. I don’t encourage it. However, as far as films go, if a character smokes, they smoke. If a character chooses to quit smoking, they quit smoking.
As much as it pains me to say this…I think I’m going to have to. Which is worse?
Seeing characters smoke onscreen or have a character eat human flesh?
Seeing characters smoke onscreen or have a character engage in underage drinking?
YEAH get rid of smoking! Because we know we can’t influence the youth on sex and drugs anymore!
LOL, well Salem, I don’t know you at all, bud. :-)
At least we agree on rap music.
Vic
Rap has nothing to do with influencing teens, it’s the CONTENT of the rap song. There are some very positive rap songs out there, just as there are very bad rap songs out there. Same as rock.
Very good points. As I stated during another anti-smoking topic, it’s a simple fad. Society feels the need to dump on smokers, and now they’re going after it on screen.
Remember the Columbine shootings? People attacked hard rock music, video games, and freakin MARYLN MANSON! >.Very good points. As I stated during another anti-smoking topic, it’s a simple fad. Society feels the need to dump on smokers, and now they’re going after it on screen.
Remember the Columbine shootings? People attacked hard rock music, video games, and freakin MARYLN MANSON! >.< History repeats itself…
I agree with Jarek about the content being important, not the music itself. And it’s stupid to say one genre is better than another – to me, for example, Salem’s black metal is just noise, even hip-hop sounds better than that.
First smoking gets banned,
then booze,
then guns,
then swearing,
then sex,
then movies all-together.
All they need is a foot in the door.
Bruce Campbell will be there to chain saw that foot off.
Fuck ya!
Ash saves the movie world!
Indeed. It’ll just lead to more banning of what people view as bad influence. Honestly, you want to keep kids from doing bad things? How about getting parents to stop being in such denial about what their children are doing!
And Black Metal does not suck. I never said Hip-Hop is inferior (because that’s an OPINION), I just said I hate it. And it does too have a negative influence. Don’t even get me started on the negative influence it has on society, and how it perpetuates current stereotypes.
Black Metal pwns. Doug would agree with me on that one.
I don’t know why you’re singling out rap, when rock music (which I am a huge fan of) influences teens just as much (though I would agree that there is probably more harmful content in rap songs than rock music). As I said before, you can’t blame the genre, you can blame the artists though.
You can also blame the parents, for a) letting their kids listen to harmful music without at least trying to stop it, although this can actually encourage that behavior and b) not teaching their kids better morals than what is being talked about in that music.
My parents taught me certain values and I choose not to act upon what I hear in music or movies and I also choose what to and not to listen to (ie, most rap that degrades women and basically treats them as sperm receptacles…I have no idea why girls don’t pick up on this and why they enjoy being talked about in such a manner). Most of these kids today aren’t taught what’s right or wrong, so they’re easily influenced.
As far as teen smoking goes, almost NONE of it revolves around movies. I smoke occasional cigars and it had nothing to do seeing it in a movie…my friend smoked them, I hung out with him, I wanted to experiment (try them), and found out I liked them. Same with cigarettes, I can’t stand them but I found out by hanging out with friends who DID smoke, not by seeing a movie and going, “oh I want one!!!”
This is just a feel-good do-nothing measure that’s an easy target to blame for society’s ills.
BTW, in my last post, I put major responsibility on the parents…I realize that kids don’t listen to their parents a lot of the times (like me, I was told never to smoke but I did/do anyway) but I believe with that moral backbone kids are less likely to do harmful stuff to them/other people.
I completely agree that parents SHOULD teach their kids right and wrong, responsibility, values, etc. I was lucky enough to grow up with parents who did that for me. But what about the kids whose parents don’t know, or worse, don’t care what they do, how they do it, or who they do it with. There are so many kids who sit in front of a TV for hours a day because their parents are too lazy or incompetent or negligent to raise them in a caring, supportive way.
Is it so horrible for certain people in society to want to help other people out. Maybe you don’t agree with their methods, and that’s fine, but is it possible that these people who want to ban smoking in movies don’t have an alterior motive – that they are not trying to start a chain reaction and ban everything. Maybe they just genuinely care about kids who don’t have the same parental guidance that we grew up with and this is just one small step that can help.
Would banning smoking in movies have any effect on kids with positive parental guidance? Probably not – they already know better. Could it have an effect on those without the parental guidance – if they no longer see their heroes smoking on screen (yes, I know their parents should be their heroes, not celebs)? I personally believe it can.
Thinking along those lines, I am strongly in support. I’d prefer for movie studios to voluntarily eliminate smoking from their movies, but I doubt that’ll won’t happen anytime soon.
Bottom line, if it will have a positive influence on some of those that did not have the luxury of great parenting and help some kids to avoid a very dangerous life decision, I’m all for it.
To answer the question as John asked it, “if it can be scientifically shown that smoking in the movies does cause higher rates of teenagers to start smoking… should we be willing to consider phasing smoking out of movies today?” Absolutely
On a side note, I’m loving the movieblog more and more because the more comments I read, the more it seems like even when people disagree about something here, they GENERALLY handle their discussions with class. Kudos to the commenters.