Mississippi State University and the American Medical Association have released the findings of a joint study they've done which claims that 81 percent of the adults surveyed believe that teens seeing smoking in movies will encourage them to start the habit.
And you know what.... I seriously doubt the findings. I mean, I want to know how that question was phrased. For all I know they could have asked it this way:
Do you think that there is any possibility, however slight, that seeing someone famous in a movie smoking could encourage a weakminded and misguided teen to consider smoking?
...or something similar.
Come to think of it, why should anyone really care what non-experts BELIEVE is a cause. Believing something is so does not a causal link make. I mean, I could say that I believe that every child should have a pet so they would be better parents, my belief doesn't make pet ownership = better parenting.
To me, it just seems that this whole thing is being used to push an certain agenda.
If this study was just the lone piece of news about the issue, then it wouldn't have warranted a mention from me. However, a second figure chills me to the bone.
That figure is that 70 percent of that same surveyed group thought that if a movie contains smoking in it, it should be rated R. I will say that again. If a movie has smoking in it, it should be only viewable by adults and accompanied minors.
So let me put this in perspective with a quote from the MPAA guidelines: "Any drug use content will initially require at least a PG-13 rating". So basically, casual smoking in the minds of these parents and groups like Smoke Free Movies is worse than casual drug use.
I understand SFM's aims as something that is aimed more at paid tobacco company product placement and that in some contexts(like a historical one, which is one of my major arguments against a hard and fast rating based on this criteria alone.) they are willing to give filmmakers a break, but I am still uncomfortable with the idea of smoking being something that would automatically raise a film's rating to make it for adult audiences only. I would be more comfortable with it being a factor yes, but as a legal substance, I don't think such a restriction should be imposed across the board.
I plan on starting a dialogue with members of SFM's in a respectful manner to settle a few things for myself, so I plan on continuing on this topic in the near future.
Tags:
No comments:
Post a Comment