Editorial: Smoke-free Movies by Nayeli

People believe there should be smoke free movies, and if there is smoking involved in the movies it should be Rated R. The question is, would that make a difference? I mean, teens just don’t start smoking because they see a cool actress doing it, they also happen to start smoking because they are exposed to it out in the streets. Banning smoking from movies, or making them Rated R won’t make a huge change but it will help reduce the amount of teens smoking. Hollywood is a powerful channel for promoting tobacco addiction to adolescents. Public health researchers from Dartmouth estimate that 44% of all new young smokers are recruited by smoking in films: “Short of ending smoking and tobacco depictions in movies, the most effective and most sustainable way to reduce youth exposure to on-screen smoking is to give movies that depict smoking an R rating.” Movies that are labeled Rated R because they contain smoking is a good thing because it will help reduce teens from being exposed to smoke scenes. “Children are impressionable, and often imitate what they see. Smoking in the movies accounts for 37% of all smoking initiation.” Therefore, labeling movies that contain smoke Rated R will be a great start to decreasing the percentage of kids smoking. Movies do have a lot on influence on kids, so removing smoking will be a positive thing and help youth make healthier choices in life.