Editorial: Smoking in Movies by Nancy Cha

Secondhand smoking is a problem. Another problem is to have smoking scenes in the movies or shows that little kids and teens watch these days. Throughout my life, I have seen so many movies with smoking scenes such as 101 Dalmatians, Shrek, Beauty and the Beast, and Pinocchio. Little kids mostly watch Walt Disney movies and at an early age and at an early age they learn a little about smoking each time a character in a movie smokes. I believe that smoking scenes in Disney movies should be removed because it can influence children to smoke. Teens listen to music that talk or mention about smoking all the time. Songs like that portrays smoking as a cool thing, combine that into a movie, it is a recipe encouraging young teens to smoke. UCSF studies show that the exposure to smoking in movies is the main influence on half of youth who start smoking. According to Talking Points of Smokefree Movies Action Network and Character Smoking in Top Box Office Movies: First Look Report, more than half of the youth believe movies’ unrealistic portrayal of smoking represent the ordinary American life. Movies that condone smoking are lulling our youth into this misrepresentation of smoking and giving youth an unrealistic belief that cigarette smoke is harmless and cool, when in reality it is harmful and unhealthy.