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EDITORIALS: Stanton A Glantz Smoking in teenagers and watching films showing smoking BMJ 2001; 323: 1378-1379 [Full text]

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Effect of media on children under 10 and smoking.

Nandkishor V Athavale., Preeti N Athavale.   (22 May 2002)

Effect of media on children under 10 and smoking. 22 May 2002
Nandkishor V Athavale., Specialist Registrar in Geriatric Medicine Rotherham General Hospital, Moorgate Road, Rotherham S60 2UD. (UK), Preeti N Athavale. Send response to journal: Re: Effect of media on children under 10 and smoking.	EFFECTS OF MEDIA ON CHILDREN UNDER 10 AND SMOKING Sir, We read with interest the editorial by Glantz1 regarding the influence of films showing smoking on teenagers. We completely agree with him and Sargent et al 2 that smoking in the films have an encouraging influence on the teenagers. There is no doubt that today’s youngster is exposed to more technological advances than our generation. The stress over children is increased tremendously. There is increased pressure on the children to succeed in the ever-competitive world. Viewing the successful ‘hero’ figure in the film smoking, the attitudes towards smoking are bound to become favourable and increase the prevalence of smoking. It is therefore absolutely vital to stamp down these negative influences on our future generations with toughest possible measures. Hence the steps suggested by Glantz deserve sincere consideration. Another point we would like to bring to your notice is that the children under the age of 10 are equally influenced by the media. There is sufficient evidence to suggest that watching violence on the media, including television, contributes to violence and aggression in children in short and long term3. The same logic can be applied with respect to the influence of smoking on these innocent minds. We were horrified to see the extent of smoking in the children’s films including evergreen cartoons like Tom and Jerry 4. There is a great risk that viewing these cartoons could give an impression that smoking is a ‘fun thing’. We wonder if anyone has already noticed this and if anything could be done to stop this. Nandkishor V Athavale, Specialist Registrar in Geriatric Medicine Nathavale49@hotmail.com Preeti N Athavale, Senior House Officer Department of the Medicine for the Elderly, Rotherham General Hospital, Moorgate Road, Rotherham. S60 2UD. References: - 1.Glantz SA. Smoking in teenagers and watching films showing smoking. BMJ 2001;323:1378-9. 2. Sargent JD, Beach ML, Dalton MA, Mott LA, Tickle JJ, Ahrens MB, et al. Effect of seeing tobacco use in films on trying smoking among adolescents: Cross sectional study. BMJ 2001; 323: 1394-7. 3.McLellan F. Do violent movies make violent children? Lancet 2002; 359: 502. 4.Hanna W, Barbera J. Tom and Jerry cartoons. Boomrang cartoon network channel. www.cartoonnetwork.co.uk