THUNDER BAY - Children learn from what they see.
And when it comes to youth smoking, there seems to be a strong correlation between seeing actors light up on the big screen and starting the habit themselves.
In Ontario 37 per cent of youth smoking has been determined to be a result of seeing onscreen smoking with youth-rated movies delivering seven billion tobacco impressions in Ontario alone from 2004 to 2013.
The connection initially came to a surprise to Northwest Tobacco Control Area Network coordinator Daniel DePeuter, who said 30,000 Ontario youth in this generation are expected to die after they start smoking as a result of following what they see in their favourite films.
“It’s one of those things that people have a hard time believing they’re so susceptible to what they see in the movies that it could actually change their behaviour so dramatically,” he said.
“The fact remains it’s one of, if not the biggest reason kids start to smoke. In these research studies they controlled for all the other risk factors you could think of and when all things remained the same kids who saw the most smoking on the screen smoked the most.”
The Northwest Tobacco Control Area Network on Wednesday morning at the Thunder Bay District Health Unit hosted a screening of a short video made in partnership with the Ontario Coalition for Smoke-Free Movies that highlights the dangers of youth being exposed to on-screen smoking.
The video summarizes findings by research scientist and Ontario Tobacco Research Unit Dr. Robert Schwartz, who conducted studies to determine the link.
The issue has caught the attention of both the World Health Organization and U.S. Surgeon General, who both warn there is a connection between watching movies with on-screen smoking and youth tobacco use.
DePeuter said a tougher rating system in Ontario that would bump movies with excessive on-screen smoking from PG-13 or 14A to R would put pressure on studios to butt out.
“When you take that into account kids are seeing movies that have more, heavier smoking content in Ontario than they would in the States,” he said. “About 86 per cent of the movies that have smoking in them in Ontario are rated for youth.”
In the meantime, DePeuter said parents can go online to smokefreemovies.ca to see which movies have on-screen smoking and learn more about the correlation.
