"Reduce Smoking Scenes on Netflix"…Government to Submit Opinion at World Health Organization

Ministry of Health and Welfare Attends WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Conference
Introduction of Government's Tobacco Regulation Policies and Key Achievements

The South Korean government plans to present to the World Health Organization (WHO) the opinion that depictions of smoking scenes on online video services (OTT) such as YouTube and Netflix should be reduced.

The Ministry of Health and Welfare announced on the 4th that it will attend the 10th Conference of the Parties to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) to be held in Panama City, Panama, from the 5th to the 11th.

The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Conference of the Parties is a regular international meeting held biennially to review the implementation status of the convention by each party and to discuss ways to promote implementation of each article of the convention.

At this conference, held in person for the first time in five years, South Korea will send a government delegation of seven members, including the chief representative Jeong Yeon-hee, Director of Health Promotion Division at the Ministry of Health and Welfare, as well as experts from the National Quitline Center and tobacco control policy.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Each party will share the status of convention implementation and tobacco control achievements since the 9th Conference, and discuss major agenda items during the conference such as regulation and disclosure of tobacco product ingredients, tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship, and the status of new and novel tobacco products.

The South Korean government delegation plans to urge the convention secretariat and parties to pay attention to reducing depictions of tobacco and smoking scenes on OTT platforms. They will also emphasize the need for joint responses to environmental changes surrounding tobacco regulation, such as the increase in tobacco advertising and marketing through multinational media platforms and the launch of new tobacco products.

The delegation will also introduce the government’s tobacco control policies and major achievements to date, including the expansion of smoke-free zones around daycare centers, kindergartens, and elementary to high schools, the establishment of media guidelines for smoking prevention, the passage of the Tobacco Harm Management Act concerning analysis and disclosure of harmful substances, and the decline in adult smoking rates.

According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare, South Korea’s adult smoking rate dropped from 35.1% in 1998 to 17.7% in 2022, marking the lowest level since statistics began.

Jeong Yeon-hee, chief representative and Director of Health Promotion Division at the Ministry of Health and Welfare, said, “We will share the achievements of South Korea’s tobacco control policies in detail with the international community and carefully review the conference discussions to utilize them for strengthening domestic smoking cessation policies.”

The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which came into effect in 2005, is the first international health treaty aimed at reducing global tobacco consumption and smoking rates. As of 2023, 183 countries participate as parties to the convention. South Korea ratified it in the year it came into effect.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.