Add Norway to the list of countries where there is strong, consistent evidence that onscreen smoking in movies causes young people to smoke.
Gunnar Sæbo and Ingeborg Lund from the Norwegian Institute for Alcohol and Drug Research just published their paper, “Exposure to smoking in films and smoking behavior among Norwegian 15- to 20-year olds: A cross-sectional study,” which shows that, similar to other countries all over the world, Norwegian youth who see a lot of smoking in movies are about twice as likely to smoke.
It also shows that even among youth who are not yet smoking, seeing a lot of onscreen smoking increases their susceptibility to smoking, i.e., makes it more likely that they will start smoking in the future.
In addition to generally adding to the global case that smoking in movies causes youth to smoke, it shows that this effect is independent of local culture.
The authors also show that, as in most other countries, virtually all movies with smoking are rated for youth. They call for an "18" rating (equivalent to a US "R") for movies with smoking to reduce their effect as advertisements for smoking. Tobacco advertising in other media has been illegal in Norway for decades.