WI Attorney General joins Bipartisan Group Urging Changes to Tobacco Content in Video Streaming Industry

Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul joined a bipartisan
group of Attorney Generals from across the country Wednesday that are urging the
video streaming industry to limit tobacco use in their video content.

Kaul joins 42 other Attorney Generals in asking the
streaming industry to make a number of changes – including limiting tobacco-related
content to programs that are rated “MA” or “R” and making sure trailers,
previews and image galleries are tobacco-free. The suggested policies also
include only recommending or designating tobacco-free content for children, families
and general audiences, improved parental controls to help restrict access to all
content with tobacco content, regardless of rating, and to show anti-smoking and
anti-vaping public service announcements before all videos with tobacco
content.

The U.S. Surgeon General in 2012 concluded that watching
movies with tobacco imagery increases the likelihood that adolescents will be
come smokers. Major restrictions were placed on tobacco company marketing
practices in the late 1990s through the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement,
but studies by public health organizations find that streaming video content that’s
popular with young viewers include higher rates of tobacco content than
programs shown on traditional television.