Dr Jo Cranwell, a psychologist from the University of Nottingham, is calling for tighter measures put in place to protect children from images depicting smoking an drinking in music videos. She claims that British teenagers are being exposed to a high
level of tobacco and alcohol images in online music videos and research from the University of Nottingham suggests girls aged between 13 and 15 are the most exposed. The study, published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health ,
analysed 32 of the most popular music videos during a 12-week period. reserachers estimated, using the census and their own data, that the average percentage of viewing of those videos was 22% for teenagers and 6% for adults. They worked out the total
number of depictions (impressions) of alcohol and tobacco in 10-second slots throughout the music videos seen by viewers. Overall, the videos produced 1,006 million impressions of alcohol and 203 million of tobacco. Trumpets by Jason
Derulo, and Blurred Lines by Robin Thicke delivered some of the highest number of tobacco impressions, while Timber by Pitbull, and Drunk In Love by Beyonce, delivered the most alcohol content, the study said. Cranwell
whinged: Girls are looking at role models beyond their core family unit and their peers. They're looking at wider society and they're looking at celebrities on film, she said. They're very attractive and they lead very
aspirational lifestyles and these young girls are looking to them to learn about how they should look and how they should behave. The BBFC should include portrayals of alcohol and tobacco smoking in their 'drug misuse' and their
'dangerous behaviours presented as safe age classification' criteria and at the moment they're not.
The BBFC says classification of content online is not required by law but many platforms use BBFC age ratings voluntarily. Its
guidelines state that classification decisions also take into account any promotion or glamorisation of activities such as smoking or drinking. The last review in 2013 public opinion was clear that neither smoking nor alcohol were viewed as
areas for concern for film classification . Presumably Cranwell was too wrapped up in self importance to realise that issuing silly ratings, eg an 18 rating for 1001 Dalmatians, would undermine the credibility of ratings and would lead
to parents ignoring them entirely. | 
