The American Medical Association and the Motion Picture Association of America are going head-to-head over the depiction of smoking in movies aimed toward children.

Reported by USA Today shows that a study conducted by the AMA Alliance, a volunteer branch of the AMA, states that 57-percent of movies rated G, PG, or PG-13 have featured characters smoking since 2002. The PG-13 films are said to have a shocking 67-percent featuring smoking.

The AMA Alliance accused the MPAA of failing to make good on its promise to include smoking in assessing a film’s suitability for showing to children.

Seth Oster, a spokesman for the MPAA, stepped up and said that its own studies show that 75-percent of the films that featured smoking over the past four years were rated R and that the ratings descriptions now incorporate such phrases as “glamorizes smoking” and “pervasive smoking.”

“The motion picture industry takes very seriously the issue of smoking in films,” Oster said.

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