LANSING, MI (WKZO AM/FM) — Attorney General Dana Nessel is joining with 42 other AG’s around the country in encouraging streaming services to limit tobacco advertising to minors.
An official press release notes data by the Truth Initiative indicating that “the streamed videos most popular with young viewers feature higher rates of tobacco content than programs shown on traditional television.”
As a result, The National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) has sent out several letters to companies such as Apple, Google, and Comcast with a list of suggestions.
According to the press release, these suggestions are as follows:
- Eliminate or exclude tobacco imagery in all future original streamed content for young viewers, including any content rated TV-Y, TV-Y7, TV-G, TV-PG, TV-14, G, PG, and PG-13, and ensure that any promotional material such as previews, trailers, image galleries, and clips be tobacco-free. Content with tobacco imagery should be rated TV-MA or R and only recommended to adult viewers.
- Only “recommend” or designate tobacco-free content for children, adolescents, families, and general audiences.
- Improve or offer parental controls that are effective, prominent, and easy-to-use, that allow parents and guardians specifically to restrict access to all content with tobacco content, regardless of rating.
- Mitigate the negative influence of tobacco content, from whatever source and with any rating, by streaming strong anti-smoking and/or anti-vaping public service announcements, as appropriate, before all videos with tobacco content.
“Tobacco is still the United States’ and our world’s greatest preventable killer,” said Nessel in the press release. “It is incumbent upon us to initiate this dialogue with the streaming services in an effort to protect our youth.”
The press release also notes “a spike in e-cigarette use among middle and high school students from 2.1 million in 2017 to 3.6 million in 2018” as part of the reasoning for new suggestions.
