Kids shouldn't watch films in which actors smoke?

[Cudzoziemiec]

According to this report some doctors are saying films which contain scenes of actors smoking should be classified 18, because they greatly increase the likelihood of teenagers watching them taking up smoking.

Researchers from the University of Bristol found that 15-year-olds who saw the most films showing actors puffing on a cigarette were 73% more likely to have tried one than those who has seen the least.

 They were also almost 50% more likely to be a current smoker than those least exposed.

The BBFC disagree, defending the current standards.

OTOH - I remember Little Cudzo saying that in one film (I think it was 101 Dalmatians) he knew immediately that a particular character was a baddy because they were smoking. But then again, he's not a teenager and the word "cool" has only recently entered his vocabulary.

[Biggsy]

No one can be sure if the films encourage smoking, of if kids attracted to the sort of films that are likely to include smoking are more inclined to smoke anyway.  Nevertheless, the more measures to make smoking seem anti-social, the better, IMO.

[Woofage]

For every screen actor who smokes there are thousands of fat chavs hanging around in shopping centres doing the same. Which is the better role model?

[Cudzoziemiec]

For every screen actor who smokes there are thousands of fat chavs hanging around in shopping centres doing the same. Which is the better role model?

teenagers are not likely to deliberately emulate fat chavs in malls. However, I expect peer pressure is a far greater influence on smoking than films.

[citoyen]

Yes, that's right, deny our children their cultural heritage because we're too lazy to bring them up properly. 

Fucking ridiculous.

Fortunately, the story sounds like bullshit anyway - most "news" stories based on the results of academic studies usually are.

d.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Plus, it neglects the role some films play in creating/reinforcing a negative link with smoking. Though I dare say that actually appeals to some/many teenagers.

[matthew]

Its the classic 'correlation is not causation' scenario.

[Kim]

There was an Arthur C Clarke novel (I'm not sure which, but The Ghost From The Grand Banks seems likely) in which one of the characters had a job electronically removing casual smoking from old films.  That seemed preposterous when I read it, but we now have the technology, and I reckon the social pressure that will make it a reasonable thing to do (at least for broadcast, melon farmer style) will come sooner than we expect.


Of course smoking has become Hollywood shorthand for badness, in much the same way as facial hair or British accents, but not all films are Hollywood blockbusters.

[Biggsy]

Even well brought-up children like to rebel in some way.  Smoking is something they see rebellious characters in films do.

Drug taking in films influences the BBFC's decisions on classification.  Smoking should be included in that.

[citoyen]

Yes, I think our children ought to be protected from scenes of utter moral depravity like this:

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/4IVrsoxIHtU&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/4IVrsoxIHtU&rel=1</a>

But it's such a great film... maybe we could allow kids to see it as long as we digitally remove the smoking first? Maybe replace the cigarette with a kazoo? That should do the trick.

d.

[clarion]

*waiting for Riggers to suggest that all cigarettes in movies should be digitaly replaced by pipes*

[Kim]

But it's such a great film... maybe we could allow kids to see it as long as we digitally remove the smoking first? Maybe replace the cigarette with a kazoo? That should do the trick.

That's not casual smoking, though.  That's character development.  There's no way to alter that without melon farming.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Removing smoking (or alcohol, drugs, swearing, sex, nudity, violence, racism, gambling, slavery, Nigger the dog, etc etc) from films, books, etc already made would be a retrograde step. It's attempting to rewrite history no less than the renaming of streets and towns when dictators and political systems change. What's more, when we see films like that ^^^ where smoking was an essential ingredient in being cool, sexy and sophisticated, we're reminded how experts are fallible too; everybody went along with it at the time. Doctors used to routinely endorse cigarettes! The world changes constantly and if we forget this it's too easy to allow it to change in a bad way, or at least to not try to make it change in a good way.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Now I'm wondering if you can still get those chocolate cigarettes that we used to have as kids (I'm thinking of the 70s)?

[hellymedic]

Now I'm wondering if you can still get those chocolate cigarettes that we used to have as kids (I'm thinking of the 70s)?

No.
Candy & chocolate cigarettes have been banned.

[iakobski]

But you can get "candy sticks" - in much the same packaging (but without the red end).
And "chocolate pencils".

[Peter]

There seems to be a lot of unnecessary discussion here.  Film certificates will make no difference: most children watch their films somewhere other than a cinema.