It’s hardly any news to anybody that commercials and advertisement campaigns influence people’s thinking. If it didn’t, there would none. Children need to be protected from advertisement of this kind as their mind is similar to a sponge that absorbs all kinds of information, negative as well as positive.

Speaking of the protection of children from such influence, the National Commission for Child Protection of Indonesia threatens to strike a blow to the government of the country unless it “repents” of its actions and issues a regulation in accordance to which tobacco advertisement would be banned. NCCP puts the blame for many underage smokers in the country. This is not just mere talk, serious actions have been undertaken and the paperwork, according to the chariman of the NCCP, Arist Merdeka Sirait, is being drawn for the lawsuit. There are plans for the filing of the suit by the end of this May.

The suit will have to do with accusations against the government, and the accusations will relate to the lack of seriousness of cigarette advertisement campaigns. “This country has been losing out to the tobacco industry for far too long,” said the chairman. Many things have been imposed on the tobacco industry – such as higher taxes and mandatory warning stickers on cigarette packs – in recent years, but apparently it has not been enough to restrict pernicious influence upon minors as well as upon adults. When it comes to children from 10 to 14, of 89 million smokers there are about 1.2 million underage smokers.

In addition to these disturbing numbers, there are about 239 thousand smokers under the aforementioned age. When it comes to the influence of tobacco advertising, the statistics claim that 83.7 of child smokers, picked up the habit on account of such ads.