Public health officials say tobacco companies are avoiding a worldwide ban on advertising tobacco products to young people by using smartphone applications, or “apps.” The officials say some of the apps are designed to persuade young people to start smoking.
Armando Peruga works for the World Health Organization’s Tobacco-Free Initiative. He recently discovered one such pro-smoking app online.
“I was taken aback by a game that is called ‘Puff, Puff, Pass,’ which is (an) application that’s a cartoon game where the user must click on game characters to order them to smoke and pass the cigarette to the other characters. And the user collects points if he or she continues passing the cigarette in the same sequence at a fast pace. Obviously, that can only be directed at very young kids.”
Millions of people around the world now have smartphones, and many of them are children.
Researchers in Australia searched the Apple and Android app stores using words like “smoke,” “smoking,” “cigar,” “cigarette,” and “tobacco.” They found more than one hundred apps linked to those words. The apps included not only games and social utilities, but advertisements for tobacco products, and information about where the products could be purchased.
Forty-two of the apps were from the Android store. Together, they had been downloaded six million times.
The most popular Android apps were those that simulate smoking. The apps let users smoke a virtual cigarette and produce visual effects of the cigarette being burned and smoked. Some of the simulation apps claim to aid in quiting smoking.
Armando Peruga said the names of some of the apps are very misleading.
“These apps -- which are, the study identified about a hundred seven of these pro-smoking apps -- are classified under names such as health and fitness and just…games which are very misleading, and anyone can access, especially young kids.”
The Australian researchers believe these pro-smoking smartphone applications violate the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. The convention bans all advertising and promotion of tobacco products in the media, in countries that have signed the treaty. The researchers say the app stores have a moral -- and possibly legal -- responsibility to honor the convention and other laws that ban the advertising of tobacco products to young people.
The report on pro-tobacco smartphone applications was published in the journal Tobacco Control.
一年级英语下册Unit2 Small animals第三课时教案
牛津版小学一年级英语上册Unit1 Hello教案
一年级英语上册教案 Unit 1 第二课时
沪教版小学英语一年级下册教案unit1课时5
苏教版牛津小学一年级英语教案Unit1 What`s your name
沪教牛津版小学英语一年级上册 Unit 8 教案
沪教版小学英语一年级下册教案unit1课时2
小学一年级英语下册Unit2 Small animals教案1
牛津小学一年级英语Unit5 Fruit教案(五个课时)
一年级英语上册Unit1 My classroom第三课时教案
上海版牛津一年级英语教案Unit8 Playtime(总五课时)
上海牛津版一年级英语下册Unit9 Revision第一课时教案
上海牛津版一年级英语下册Unit2 Small animals教案
沪教版小学英语一年级下册教案unit1课时6
新起点小学一年级英语下册Unit11 Toys教案
上海牛津版一年级英语下册Unit9 Revision第二课时教案
沪教牛津版小学英语一年级上册 Unit 3 第二课时教案
沪教牛津版小学英语一年级上册 Unit3 period2教案
一年级英语下册Unit2 Small animals教案2
一年级英语上册教案 Unit 1 Period 1
一年级英语上册Unit8 Playtime 第三课时教案
新课标小学英语第一册期末考试百词范围
沪教版小学英语一年级下册教案unit1课时3
一年级英语教案Module1 unit6 Mid-Autumn Festival
苏教版小学一年级英语下册Unit5 On the road教案
牛津版一年级英语上册unit5 Fruit教案(2)
上海牛津版一年级英语Unit7 My family教案
沪教版小学英语一年级下册教案unit1单元分析
沪教版小学英语一年级下册教案unit1课时4
上海牛津版一年级英语下册教案Unit9 Revision(3)
不限 |
英语教案 |
英语课件 |
英语试题 |
不限 |
不限 |
上册 |
下册 |
不限 |