A Study Says There's A Link Between Gaming And Smoking Cigarettes

J.E. Reich, Tech Times 15 December 2015, 05:12 pm

While smoking cigarettes is in decline, the habit is still deadlier than ever, killing an average of 480,000 a year in the U.S. alone. Now, a study published on Dec. 15 proposes that video games might be influencing young gamers to give tobacco use a try by inadvertently glamorizing it.

Published by Truth Initiative, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to battle (and defeat) the tobacco industry, the report, titled "Played: Smoking and Video Games," asserts that the depiction of smoking in video games as "gritty" or "tougher" ups its appeal, creating a subliminal gateway for potential future smokers who wish to emulate those characteristics.

For the study, researchers used a sample group consisting of 44 young gamers described as "teens" or "young adults" and interviewed them on their experiences with what they had seen in terms of smoking or tobacco use in the video games that they played. The sample number was in correlation with the 44 percent of adolescents who pick up a smoking habit due to "smoking images they have seen in the movies."

"In some cases, players can choose to make their characters use tobacco, and in other cases, players have no choice about whether their characters use tobacco," reads the study, which also emphasizes that publishers do not indicate on their rating descriptions whether or not tobacco is featured in a particular game.

"The glamorization of smoking in video games is cause for serious concern, particularly because youth spend more time playing video games than going to the movies," said Truth Initiative CEO and President Robin Koval.

"Tobacco products are often used by 'cool' and 'strong' characters, by characters controlled by the players themselves, and are often not reflected in a game's rating," Koval continued. "We hope this report will lead to better awareness of how tobacco images might be influencing kids to smoke. It should also drive the gaming industry to become more transparent in disclosing and describing the potentially harmful content of their games."

The report also outlines ways in which the gaming industry could make strides toward monitoring or labeling their products — like requesting that the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) give "Mature" ratings to all games that feature smoking — or doing away with the portrayal of tobacco use in games altogether.

Check out Truth Initiative's video on "Played: Smoking and Video Games" below.