Use of electronic games as tobacco cross boarder advertisement

Abstract

Background As years pass by, we see different ways in which the Tobacco industry interferes with media, to achieve its goals (specially in developing countries). Knowing that teenagers and youngsters are their target, they will use the best media to reach them. Since young people play electronic games (e-games), worldwide, it's a cross boarder media with great efficiency, and it is possible that they are interfering with computer games, in order to insert Tobacco images or other Tobacco related material. Methods The goal of the research is to bring out visibility on Tobacco industry's influence on e-games to create a link and influence young people throughout the world. A online research was done, using Google, YouTube and accessing different computer games by downloading or buying them, to find scenes and material that showed appearances of Tobacco. Researches on Lilacs and PubMed and Grey Literature were made, using the key words: "Tobacco and computer games","Tobacco in video games", "Tobacco in e-games" and "Tobacco in games". Results No publications were found in PubMed or Lilacs, related to Tobacco insertions on computer games. However a article was found, on the British Medical Journal (BMJ) platform, related to Tobacco warnings on video games by the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), and articles referring to Tobacco and alcohol insertion in electronic games were found also on Grey Literature, showing a crescent concern of researchers. Conclusions E-games have to be observed, studied and adopted as a dangerous and viable media for Tobacco funding and marketing use, by the Tobacco industry. To do so, researches and investigation of Tobacco industry's E-games financing should be done, partnerships with different game producers and government should be made, in order to stop those insertions and punish them for transgressing the Art.13 of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control guidelines.

Keywords

• WCTOH