Children Who Choosing to Smoke

An article in Science Daily (Jan 18, 2008) titled Exposure to Smoking in Movies Influences Kids Lighting Up indicates that children watching smoking behavior in movies help them determine to smoke later. The common thought has been that children make a decision to smoke at the adolescent age level. The research revealed that children are influenced at a much earlier age. Moreover, the study found that the influence to smoke is from "youth-rated movies. The article recommends that parents should limit children's view of movies that contain smoking. Somehow that recommendation seems impossible to me. I think a better recommendation is that parents have continued dialogue with children about the pitfalls of smoking while setting an example by not smoking.