Smoking is not only the problem of the adults, but also of teenagers. While they start smoking because it’s a sign of coolness and because one “needs” to smoke if s/he is to be accepted by his/her peers, it on the other hand is not as easy to quit it as many portray it to be. First, there is the reverse effect of losing one’s cool when cigarettes are no longer lit.

Granted, however, there is a common push for the ban on smoking. Second, having once started smoking, there is a habit that has been developing over the course of weeks, months and years, which is rather addictive. Peer pressure, of course, plays its crucial role and so does the right type of parenting, where it is not overprotective and yet not overly endorsing either. And then again, having once opened the Pandora’s box it is hard to stay abstain from other addictives, such as alcohol and minor drugs (like marijuana), which then leads to greater substance abuse – of greater implications and more server substances.

The National Institute of Health’s own Dr. Yvonne Hunt stated that “quit programs are often designed for adults, and teens … think and talk differently, and have different smoking patterns,” and as such should be treated differently, and therefore different techniques and programs should be designed for adolescents desiring quitting.

One such program that has been designed and has already been implemented is text messaging. Text messaging is a very common way for teens to communicate, so why not use this service as a way to carry the message over the cellphone waves.

The combined forces of the National Institute of Health and the US Department of Health and Human Services have launched the text-messaging campaign, the pilot version of which had been launched in UK, the results of which were astonishingly positive. The motivational text messages encourage their readers to live a smoking-free life.