Frequent Smoking on Netflix... Controversy Over Regulatory Blind Spots

National Assembly Audit Issue Analysis Report
"OTT Does Not Regulate Smoking and Drinking Scenes"

OTT (video streaming) services, which are not subject to the Broadcasting Act, have frequently aired content featuring smoking and drinking scenes, sparking controversy over regulatory blind spots.

According to the '2023 National Assembly Audit Issue Analysis' report recently published by the National Assembly Legislative Research Office on the 26th, the Korea Health Promotion Institute monitored 14 popular drama works from seven domestic and international OTT services last year, finding that 12 of them, or 87.5%, included tobacco products and smoking scenes.

Monitoring 10 OTT original drama and entertainment programs (96 episodes) that prominently feature drinking revealed a total of 249 drinking scenes.

Unlike OTT programs, movies and dramas broadcast on terrestrial TV are subject to the Broadcasting Act, so drinking or smoking scenes do not appear directly.

The Broadcasting Act stipulates compliance with the Broadcasting Deliberation Regulations, Article 28 of which states, "When broadcasting deals with content such as drinking, smoking, gambling, luxury, and waste, careful consideration must be given to the expression so as not to glorify or encourage them."

In the case of OTT, they fall under the Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection (Information and Communications Network Act), not the Broadcasting Act. This law prohibits harmful sites and illegal information distribution but does not regulate smoking or drinking scenes.

The report pointed out, "OTT can be a major channel encouraging smoking and drinking among adolescents," and emphasized, "There needs to be social discussion on regulatory measures to reduce environments that encourage adolescent smoking and drinking." It added, "The Information and Communications Network Act allows service provider organizations to establish codes of conduct for user protection and to implement voluntary regulation guidelines to prevent the distribution of harmful information to youth," and stressed, "The government should also encourage OTT content creators and platform industries to implement self-regulation."