Smoking 2 Year Toddler
In Indonesia, little Ardi Rizal is racking up the bill for his 2 pack a day cigarette habit and getting alot of attention on YouTube. I say “little” because he’s two years old. Yup, two.
And you thought it was bad to catch your kids at age 12 stealing a ciggy out of your pack.
His father gave him his first cigarette at 18 months and he’s been hooked ever since. He’s two, severely over-weight, smokes 40 cigarettes a day, and gets wheeled around in a toy truck because he’s in no physical condition to run and play with other children. However, the parents see no issue. The officials in Sumatra have taken notice of our 2 year old friend and even offered to buy the family a car if they get their son to stop smoking. The parents are unaffected by this offer.
Earlier in the year there was a different video of a 4 year old showing off his swearing and smoking skills while adults laughed in the background on YouTube. Again, the adults saw no issue.
Why should they? It’s not illegal. Indonesia is the world’s 3rd largest consumer of tobacco products. There’s a fight to pass legislation on age along side a fight to get out non-smoking public information, but that fight still has a ways to go.
One of many videos are below. If the link is broken, go to YouTube and search “smoking toddler Indonesia”. I believe it’s against YouTube’s TOS to show videos of children smoking. Not sure why that should apply for a journalistic piece.