Cape Town - While the World Health Organisation (WHO) has called on governments to rate movies that portray tobacco, to prevent children from smoking, the Film and Publication Board (FPB) in South Africa already considers this during its ratings, according to board spokesperson Janine Raftopoulos.
The WHO this week said movies showing use of tobacco products have enticed millions of young people to start smoking.
They recommended a policy that requires, among others, age classification ratings for films with tobacco imagery to reduce overall exposure of youth to tobacco imagery in films, and ending the display of tobacco brands in films.
According to the WHO, studies in the US have shown that on-screen smoking accounts for 37 percent of all new adolescent smokers.
In 2014 the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that exposure to on-screen smoking would recruit more than 6 million new, young smokers in that country.
Raftopoulos said FPB SA is a signatory to the WHO and it has for a long time considered cigarette smoking and the use of substances before it applied an age rating to films.
“It is not a new situation for the FPB as we are already doing this, and the WHO is perhaps elevating it to the global arena. South Africa has different cultural norms and before any movies is screened or distributed in South Africa is gets rated accordingly.
“When it comes to cigarettes and alcohol, the FPB guidelines make a distinction between substance use and substance abuse.
“What would constitute substance abuse will depend on the context, frequencies of the cigarette smoking in the movie and whether or not the film maker glamorises smoking. If all of these are present, the decision may be accompanied by an advisory to denote existence of substance abuse and/or drugs,” she said.
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Cape Times