Netflix Adopts New Policy After Stranger Things Backlash

Netflix has a bad habit to kick. And that habit can be summed up in one word:

After a recent report revealed that depictions of smoking in its original content have tripled in just the last year, the streamer has declared that they will adopt a new, much more restrictive policy in regard to such depictions going forward. The move comes just days after the release of the third season of the hit series Stranger Things, which happens to feature a ton of era-appropriate smoking.

The report was released by Truth Initiative, a non-profit organization that tracks the appearances of tobacco products in major media. It's not the first time that the organization has had occasion to call out Netflix, or even Stranger Things, for that matter. A similar report released in March 2018 took the streamer to task for featuring 182 "smoking incidents" across the ten episodes which comprised the show's first season, with other original offerings such as House of Cards and Orange is the New Black also coming under fire.

The earlier report also pointed out the troubling fact that streaming services which aren't bound to the same content standards that govern traditional broadcast television are extremely popular among young people ages 15 to 24, an age group coveted as potential customers by tobacco companies. The new analysis pointed out that the trend of featuring characters who light up on a regular basis hasn't just continued, it's exploded:

"Based on estimated viewership of these programs, results suggest that approximately 28 million young people were exposed to tobacco through television and streaming programs in these most popular shows alone. That exposure is a significant public health concern."

When the issue first reared its head last year, Netflix issued what could be described as a non-response:

"While streaming entertainment is more popular than ever, we're glad that smoking is not. We're interested to find out more about the study."

This new missive, however, appears to have gotten the streaming giant's attention. As viewers were watching Stranger Things' police chief Jim Hopper puffing away throughout the latest batch of episodes, Netflix was putting together a detailed statement, which it released to Entertainment Weekly. It read, in part,

"Netflix strongly supports artistic expression. We also recognize that smoking is harmful and when portrayed positively on screen can adversely influence young people. Going forward, all new projects that we commission with ratings of TV-14 or below for series or PG-13 or below for films, will be smoking and e-cigarette free except for reasons of historical or factual accuracy. For new projects with higher ratings, there'll be no smoking or e-cigarettes unless it's essential to the creative vision of the artist or because it's character-defining (historically or culturally important)."

The statement also revealed that, in addition to making a concerted effort to cut down on the butts, there would be changes forthcoming to its content warnings.

"Starting later this year, smoking information will be included as part of our ratings on the Netflix service so our members can make informed choices about what they watch."

After nearly two decades of steadily falling numbers, use of tobacco products among teens has recently spiked. To be clear, nobody is pinning the spike on Netflix. The reason for the surge is the soaring popularity of e-cigarettes such as the Juul, which have seen an explosion in use by teens and young adults while the numbers for combustible cigarettes have remained about the same.

It's worth noting that the decades-long drop in the number of teen smokers came during a time when references to tobacco products were being carefully stripped away from broadcast television. So it's certainly possible that the more smoking-friendly streaming services which now field more original series than broadcast networks for the first time ever could contribute, in some small way at least, to a plateauing or even a reversal of the trend. Stranger things have happened.

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