AN anti-smoking group today called for all films with smoking scenes to be given an 18 certificate in the UK.

SmokeFree Liverpool said the move was needed to protect young people and that if the move was not implemented nationwide then it would be prepared to go it alone in the city.

But the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) said such a move would be "heavy handed" and insisted that adequate protection measures were already in place.

Andy Hull, Liverpool's head of public protection and chair of SmokeFree Liverpool, said there was a direct link between young people seeing screen icons smoking and the decision to light up themselves.

Speaking on BBC Radio Five Live, he said: "It really cannot disappear fast enough for us.

"Latest figures for the year 2000 analysed 480 movies during the year.

"Of the 3,300 children, young people, in Liverpool who started smoking that year, over half - 1,650 - will have started smoking as direct result of seeing these images on the big screen."

He continued: "When you think about it that's not such a big leap of the imagination really because we have a film classification system to protect young people from all sorts of influences - seeing violent images and all the rest - so why wouldn't smoking be one of those influences that young people pick up, think is cool, and act to change their behaviour?"

But BBFC spokeswoman Sue Clark insisted there was no need to classify all films as 18 just because they showed characters smoking.

She said there had been a decline in scenes depicting smoking in recent years, and held up two examples - recent Oscar-winner Atonement, currently rated 15; and classic Casablanca, currently a U rating - which would immediately have to be reclassified as 18 films.

Ms Clark said: "We do have a policy where smoking is concerned, and if we see smoking in films which is actively promoting smoking to young people then yes. of course, we would take action against them, give them a higher rating if necessary.

"But we do not actively see films like that. The modern films in modern settings do not have smoking in them simply because you cannot smoke in the public places where the films are being made."

Historical

There had to be allowances for smoking in a historical context, she said.

"If there were characters aimed at young children that were actively promoting smoking - and the example I use is Harry Potter - then the film would be rated accordingly," she added.

Liverpool is the lung cancer capital of England, with some of the highest smoking rates in the UK.

Asked if the city would be prepared to us licensing laws to bring in stricter ratings for films screened locally if no nationwide move was taken, Mr Hull replied: "The city council are committed...There is a pioneering spirit on this which is based on some of those statistics and you need to do something about that."

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