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Movies and animations feature excessive amount of smoking scenes: pollDec 11, 2010 (The China Post - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- TAIPEI (THE CHINA POST/ANN) -- The number of movies showing people smoking has declined since 2008, according to a survey released Friday by the Bureau of Health Promotion (BHP) under the Department of Health (DOH). However, the same survey also revealed that some of the most popular animations currently showing on television feature too many smoking scenes, which could influence young people to take up the habit. The survey showed that about 30 percent of all 102 randomly selected movies in 2010 feature smoking scenes, a huge decline in comparison with the same numbers showed in 2009 (60.5 percent) and 2008 (58.8 percent) surveys. "The study shows that exposure to onscreen smoking in movies for developing children increases the possibility for youths to start smoking," Yu Po-tswen, head of the Health Education Center under the BHP, said Friday at a press conference to unveil the survey. Scientists found that over 50 percent of smoking behavior is the result of exposure to smoking scenes in all kinds of media during one's teenage years, Yu added. Yu said parents should tell their children whenever they see someone smoking on TV or in films that smoking is bad for their health, to prevent children and teenagers from imitating actors and actresses in smoking. The survey also revealed that the movie with the most smoking scenes in the past year was the popular Taiwanese movie 'Monga'. The blockbuster that tells the story about a group of gangsters in Taipei City's Wanhua District in the 1980s features 120 scenes showing people smoking cigarettes, which equals to a scene per minute in the two-hour-film. Moreover, Japanese animation TV series 'One Piece', which is extremely popular among children in Taiwan, was found to contain an average of nine smoking scenes per episode. Yu said his bureau had worked together with the National Communications Commission (NCC) to ask broadcasters to add health warnings to the animation series so that parents can remind their children that smoking is a bad habit. Scholars who attended Friday's press conference also recommended that movie and TV show ratings should consider whether the film depicts smoking, in the future. To see more of the Asia News Network, go to http://www.asianewsnet.net/home/ Copyright (c) 2010, The China Post, Taipei, Taiwan / Asia News Network Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For more information about the content services offered by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services (MCT), visit www.mctinfoservices.com. |