"Child Smokers Easy Target for Tobacco Industry: Ministry", 18 June 2020

Indonesian children are an easy target market for the tobacco industry, said Lenny Rosalin, the deputy head for child growth and development affairs at the Women Empowerment and Child Protection Ministry.

According to data from the Health Ministry, 0.7 percent of 79.5 million children in Indonesia are active smokers.

"Children are a promising target market because potentially they can become long-term smokers. In 2018, the Health Ministry reported 0.7 percent of children between the age of 10 and 14 were smokers," Lenny said in an online discussion.

Meanwhile, the number of smokers among children aged between 10 and 18 had increased from 7.2 percent in 2013 to 9.1 percent in 2018.

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According to her, children are easily exposed to cigarette advertising, which means parents must be more alert in protecting their children from their messages, both explicit and subliminal.

According to a survey by the ministry, children and teenagers are most exposed to cigarette ads they regularly see in kiosks, sports events, music events, free samples, merchandise logos and discount offers.

Lenny said ministries, government agencies and the public should work together to reduce the number of child smokers by, among others, fighting for the revision of the 2012 government regulation on tobacco products as addictive substances.

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