Films may get higher rating for smoking scenes
Films that glamorise smoking, or feature pervasive smoking outside of an historic or other mitigating context, may receive a higher rating in the future, US film chiefs said today.
The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) announced that the rating system is to enhance the amount of information provided to parents on the issue of smoking in films.
All smoking in the film will now be considered, as opposed to the previous position where only illegal teen smoking was a factor in the rating of films, alongside other parental concerns such as sex, violence and adult language.
Dan Glickman, MPAA chairman and CEO, said: “The MPAA film rating system has existed for nearly 40 years as an educational tool for parents to assist them in making decisions about what movies are appropriate for their children.
“It is a system that is designed to evolve alongside modern parental concerns.”
“Clearly, smoking is increasingly an unacceptable behaviour in our society. There is broad awareness of smoking as a unique public health concern due to nicotine’s highly addictive nature, and no parent wants their child to take up the habit. The appropriate response of the rating system is to give more information to parents on this issue.
“This action is an extension of our current practice of factoring under-age smoking into the rating of films. Now, all smoking will be a consideration in the rating process.”
He said that when a film’s rating is affected by the depiction of smoking, additional phrases such as “glamorised smoking” or “pervasive smoking” would be used.
Mr Glickman went on: “Some have called for a ’mandatory R’ rating on all films that contain any smoking. We do not believe such a step would further the specific goal of providing information to parents on this issue.”
He said a review of every rated film from July 2004 to July 2006 found that three out of every four films that contained any smoking at all were already rated ’R.’
