Are movies with tobacco, alcohol, drugs, sex, and violence rated for youth?: A comparison of rating systems in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, and the United States

• James F. Thrasher^{a, b,} 
• James D. Sargent^c,
• Rosa Vargas^d,
• Sandra Braun^e,
• Tonatiuh Barrientos-Gutierrez^{b, f},
• Eric L. Sevigny^g,
• Deborah L. Billings^a,
• Edna Arillo-Santillán^b,
• Ashley Navarro^a,
• James Hardin^h

• ^a Department of Health Promotion, Education, and Behavior, Arnold School of Public Health, University of South Carolina, SC, USA
• ^b Department of Tobacco Research, Center for Population Health Research, National Institute of Public Health, Cuernavaca, Mexico
• ^c Norris Cotton Cancer Center, Dartmouth Medical School, NH, USA
• ^d Instituto Nacional de Cancer, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil
• ^e Programa de Medicina Interna General, Hospital de Clinicas, University of Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina
• ^f Department of Epidemiology, University of Michigan, MI, USA
• ^g Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, University of South Carolina, SC, USA
• ^h Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, University of South Carolina, SC, USA

Introduction

Exposure to portrayals of tobacco and alcohol in entertainment media promotes these behaviors among youth (R Hanewinkel et al., 2012 and USDHHS, 2012). In the United States (US), advocacy efforts have targeted the US film industry to reduce portrayals of tobacco (USDHHS, 2012 and Zolty, 2012) and drug use (Boyd, 2008 and Vittala, 2000). Evidence suggests that these initiatives have been relatively successful (Callister et al., 2012, Glantz et al., 2011, Sargent and Heatherton, 2009 and Worth et al., 2006c); however, little is known about the implications of these declines for other countries where US films are popular. US films that are popular outside of the US may be those that contain more risk behaviors. Indeed, films that get rated for adults in the US (i.e, R-rated) contain more risk behaviors and are likely to receive youth ratings in other countries (Anderson et al., 2010; Reiner Hanewinkel et al., 2013). In order to inform policy development to limit movie portrayals that promote risk behaviors, the current study analyzed risk behavior content for films that were popular in the Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and the US, their relationship with country-specific ratings, and changes in this content over time.

 

acesse:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0955395913001588