Act Now!
Act Now at Home and in Your Community!
Policy Changes are Needed to Protect our Children. Families can’t solve this problem by themselves. Parents can join Public Health Agencies, Non-Governmental Organizations and the Ontario Coalition for Smoke Free Movies to support action to restrict the impact of smoking in movies.
1. Get informed. The evidence is clear. The more youth see smoking in movies, the more likely they are to start.
2. Be aware of what your children are viewing and learn which movies have smoking in them. Updates are available every Thursday at www.facebook.com/hookedbyhollywood.
3. Talk with your children about tobacco and movies and teach them to be media aware.
4. Spread the word to other parents through newsletters, letters to the editors, and discuss on Facebook and Twitter.
5. Submit an endorsement! Join organizations across Ontario that are endorsing policy actions to reduce youth exposure to smoking in movies www.smokefreemovies.ca/content/letters-support-0.
6. Request that municipalities with public library video collections clearly label their movies to warn of the risks to children and youth from tobacco in movies. The tobacco content in movies from 2002 to the present is available at www.facebook.com/hookedbyhollywood.
7. Write letters to Canadian theatre executives about the impact smoking in the movies is having on youth. Urge them to work with the Canadian tobacco control community to counter tobacco images in movies by placing proven-effective, strong anti-tobacco messages (at distributors’ and exhibitors’ expense) before movies that depict tobacco images.
8. Write letters to federal and provincial ministries that administer film subsidies requesting that films with tobacco images assigned a G, PG, or 14A rating be ineligible for public subsidies
9. Sign the Global Petition at www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/870523336.
Smoking in movies doesn’t sell movie tickets. All it sells is smoking.
Material was adapted from Screen Out! A Parent's Guide to Smoking, Movies and Children's Health, produced by the Smoke-free Movies Action Network's US partners.
