New Delhi: The health ministry is consulting the information & broadcasting ministry and other key stakeholders on issuing a notification to OTT platforms such as Netflix, Amazon Prime and Disney+ Hotstar to carry anti-tobacco warning messages like we see in movies screened in the theatres and TV programmes.

All films and programmes shown in theatres and television channels are supposed to display an anti-tobacco health warning as a prominent static message at the bottom of the screen during the period of display of the tobacco products or their use in the film and television programme. They are also supposed to display an antitobacco health spot, of minimum thirty seconds duration each at the beginning and middle of the films and television programme.

Senior officials told TOI the discussions are currently in advanced stages to issue notification for anti-tobacco warnings on OTT platforms.

Recently, BJD MP Sujeet Singh has raised the issue of anti-tobacco warnings messages on OTT platforms. Tobacco consumption is responsible for 40% of the non-communicable diseases including cancers, cardio-vascular diseases, and lung disorders, Singh said.

Bhavna Mukhopadhyay, chief executive of Voluntary Health Association of India, recently told TOI the lack of a law to regulate anti-tobacco content shown on OTT platforms was a serious lacunae considering their wide reach amongst all the sections and age groups of the society.

A study on tobacco imagery in online series popular among adolescents and young adults that was conducted by experts from the Public Health Foundation of India and the World Health Organization in 2019 showed that US streaming media contains more tobacco incidents than Indian media.

There is an urgent need for better enforcement of the existing Rules on streaming platforms in India, and modernization of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, Article 13 guidelines to account for new streaming platforms to protect youth from tobacco imagery globally,” it said.