Researchers Look At The "James Bond Effect" On PG-13 Movies
By Pat Loeb
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Penn researchers exploring violence in movies aimed at children have made an intriguing discovery.
In an article being published today by the journal "Pediatrics," they say violent characters tend to have lots of bad habits and, they fear it glamorizes all of them.
They're calling it the "James Bond effect".
The bad boy hero not only de-stigmatizes violence, he makes it part of a whole package of misbehavior.
But most troubling, says researcher Amy Bleakley, is the movies are rated PG-13, which means though parents are cautioned, anyone can get in to watch.
Bleakley says, "kids who are seeing these portrayals, they're not just seeing violence, or smoking or drinking or sex, they're seeing it all clustered together and we're not quite sure of the effect of that but it is something for parents to think about."
Bleakley says this trend continues even though, overall, smoking and drinking in PG-13 movies is declining.
The team studied movies from 1985 through 2010.
