BLOG # 16 - CAT #2

In the excerpt “Imitation of Film: Here’s Smoking at You, Kid”, Nicholas Balakar expresses the concern with the habit of smoking in young children ages 10-14. Balakar gives detailed results of a study done by Dr. Sargent which showed that children that were exposed to R-rated films were more than 2 ½ times more likely to start smoking than the kids who had less exposure to these movies. Underage smoking had been a great concern to many people, especially parents, in the United States. Many children follow by example and results from studies like these prove it. I agree with Balakar that children are being overly exposed to smoking because of the collusions drawn from studies like this and from my personal experience.
In the study recently done at Dartmouth Medical school, (lead by) Dr. James D. Sargent, interviewed 6,522 kids ages 10-14 from across the nation about the movies they have watched. The studies revealed that thirty eight percent of children who start smoking did so to imitate movies that they have viewed. Unfortunately, children are very naïve and therefore they do not fully understand the health risks associated with smoking. They do as they see fit and for most children being “cool” is very important. Being cool is so important that these children are willing to start smoking because all of cool “movie stars” do it.
Unfortunately, I was one of these children. I began to smoke when I was 12 years old. I was the “coolest kid ever” (or at least I thought). I was able to make smoke rings, while all of the other kids were still coughing from their first pull. I was doing things exactly what my idols did. Things became serious when realized I had become addicted when I started to crave cigarettes on a regular basis. Fortunately, I was able to quit without any serious consequences besides yellow teeth. I wish my idols would have warned me about that!
In conclusion, Balakar wrote that “Dr. Sargent acknowledged that the study’s results pertained only to the youngest adolescences and that the report did not preclude the possibility that smoking began before the children saw these movies.” This is a very serious issue and something needs to be done about it. Parents need to step in and guide their children in the right direction and educate their children about the risks of smoking while also monitoring what their children watch. As a parent I can only protect my son from R-rated movies for so long. Most importantly I must give him the guidance to make the right decisions in life. If only the thirty eight percent of children had the proper parenting maybe they wouldn’t smoke.