101 Bansturbations

Children should be banned from watching 101 Dalmatians and Lord of the Rings, says anti-smoking group

......because they feature people with cigarettes.

Yawn. People with cigarettes are so damaging to children that they should be hidden from view at all times. The guff just keeps on coming.

A local NHS smoking cessation service wants Plymouth City Council in Devon to use its powers to reclassify such films.

Bring on the cuts! I hope they get to Plymouth pretty sharpish. An NHS smoking cessation service is certainly not necessary, and neither is a group that wants to invoke nannying to such a hideous extent that children are banned from watching timeless Disney classics because they have been rated eighteen, along with the likes of Saw and Hostel.

According to NHS Plymouth, about 40% of school-age children have admitted smoking regularly.
It said research showed children were more likely to start smoking if they had been exposed to certain images, including people smoking on television and in films.

That's crap! The majority of children who smoke do it through peer pressure. No one picks up a cigarette because they want to be Gandalf or that weird lady out of 101 dalmatians. How many children do you see walking the streets smoking a huge comedy pipe or a cigarette in a half foot long holder?

Russ Moody, from the Plymouth Stop Smoking Service, said: "This is not about being a busybody - this is about protecting young people from harm."

Of course it's not about being a busybody. How many time are we going to hear the argument of busybodies being justified by "protecting the children"? The children are doing just fine without the cold hand of the state on their shoulders, all the live long day.

He said the aim was not to stop children watching otherwise enjoyable films, but was to put pressure on film makers not to include any smoking scenes.

Really? Even if film makers don't include smoking scenes, that will only be for new films. How will that affect Disney classics and Tom & Jerry cartoons? It won't because it's bollocks.

Sue Clark, from the BBFC, said the board did consider the issue of smoking and detailed guidance was always available to parents.
However, reclassifying a film would only be done if smoking was being "actively encouraged" - something that had never happened so far.
"I can tell you categorically that if we started rating films like Lord of the Rings or like 101 Dalmatians as 18, we would get far more of an outcry than we'd get leaving them in but flagging up the fact there's smoking in them."

At least there is a bit of reasoning in that response. I am getting the impression that a lot of groups like the smoking cessation service are frantically trying to justify their own existence before being cut.

I say, the sooner the better.