Rated "R" for Smoking

Let's not mince words: smoking is stupid. It makes people smell, gives them bad breath, stained teeth, the inability to sit still for an hour, costs a ton, not even to mention the health consequences for the smoker and those around said person. I'm of the mindset that if you are a smoker in this day and age, you have a defective mind. And no, addiction isn't an excuse.

With that viewpoint out in the open, this is even stupider than smoking. First of all, I'm highly dubious of the researcher's ability to control the experiment.

But they did zero in on movies by controlling for a wide range of extenuating factors, including race, household income, school performance, parenting styles, smoking among friends and family members, and even personality traits such as rebelliousness.

How does one even begin to control the above factors? How can the researchers trust the teenager's ability to factor out those influences? I know it's an article on CNN.com and designed to get readers, but it drives me crazy when really pertinent information, such as how the study was conducted, is left out.

Secondly, the only reason I ever tried smoking was because of my friends and my friends only. I know it wasn't from my dad because I always tried to stick my head discreetly out the window to the fresh air when he smoked in the care (he has since quit). While there may be some who try smoking because they see a celebrity smoke, they will continue to smoke because their peers and/or parents do the same (most likely peers). After all, how will underage kids get cigarettes if they can't legally purchase them? Perhaps through some older friends or sharing or stealing from their parents? Seems reasonable.


But what really makes this article stupid is suggesting that we rate movies "R" because people are smoking*. Should we retroactively make Casablanca "R" or Ghostbusters, which has almost non-stop smoking? It's ludicrous. As a kid, I never even noticed people smoking (seriously, go back and watch Ghostbusters. It's crazy how often people light up). It's ridiculous to think that some day under the reasons for the rating it will say "extreme gore and violence, nudity, sex, smoking." Are we going to start having kids walk around with blinders on just in case someone is lurking on the sidewalk smoking? Maybe we shouldn't even let kids outside anymore. Of course, what kids have trouble seeing "R"-rated movies these days? 


Perhaps the most shortsighted aspect of this whole thing is that by making smoking a forbidden topic, it's making it that much more enticing. "Smoking is so adult, I'm not even allowed to see it!" "If I smoke, I'll be just like the grown-ups!"

The best part is that the article contradicts itself. In one instance, we're told:

Kids under the age of 18 are particularly vulnerable to images of high-wattage stars smoking cigarettes on the big screen, partly because adolescents, similar to very young children, are prone to mimic behaviors they see others trying, Sargent says.

While just three paragraphs later, we get:

A second study in the same issue of Pediatrics reached a similar conclusion. That study, which looked at 8- to 10-year-old children in the Netherlands and was also coauthored by Sargent, found that 20-minute clips from a cartoon and family film depicting smoking had no measurable impact on the kids' beliefs about smoking. 

Compare your high school experience to when you were 8-10. I'd imagine there was a lot more pressure to try to be cool and I'd also bet a lot of the "cool" kids smoked. You know what? That's crazy. It wasn't other kids. It was movies that pressured everyone to try smoking. The movies are the bullies. Boycott the movies!


*I'm going to avoid the discussion of how pointless the rating system is because it's infuriating to think about.