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View all search resultsAway from smoking screens
Despite its many advantages, the digital age has also expanded space for promoting tobacco products, exposing users of all ages to smoking via visually appealing content on social media platforms that are short on the economic and health costs of the harmful habit.
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A motorcyclist rides through an alley in Jakarta on Jan. 21, 2024, past a group of boys playing online games on their smartphones. (AFP/Yasuyoshi Chiba )
M
any parents may do their best to prevent their children from becoming smokers, including by protecting them from tobacco product advertisements in supermarkets, on television and along the road, but these efforts may be futile in the digital age: The same danger also lurks online as video content that children can watch on their or their parents’ devices.
Recent monitoring by the Southeast Asia Freedom of Expression Network (SAFEnet) and Free Net From Tobacco (FNFT) found more than 2,000 YouTube videos accessible to all users that promoted tobacco products, including both conventional and electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes).
Some of the promotional content appeared in videos about online gaming, which is popular among children, with the creator consuming or placing the products in front of the camera. Others even featured links to the products sold on e-commerce platforms.
The researchers tried to flag the videos to YouTube, the second-most used social media platform in Indonesia with more than 140 million users. Despite their efforts, more than 300 videos were still accessible to users of all ages.
This might be just another tip of the iceberg, since the SAFEnet-FNFT monitoring focused only on YouTube. If we scroll through the timeline of other platforms, we might come across influencers either explicitly or implicitly promoting tobacco products, including e-cigarettes, via visually appealing and stylistic content.
These promotions aim to normalize smoking among teenagers in the country, where the number is already relatively high.
According to the Health Ministry’s 2023 Indonesia Health Survey (SKI), the country had up to 70 million active smokers, with minors aged between 10 to 18 years comprising 7.4 percent, or around 5 million.
