National Children's Day and the Unfinished Promise

Every year, National Children’s Day arrives bearing the same promise: that every child has the right to grow up in a safe, healthy environment that supports them in reaching their future. This year’s theme, ‘Together Protect Children’, reiterates that promise—child protection is not solely the responsibility of the family, but also of schools, society, the business world, the media, and the government. Yet, each time this promise is renewed, a question rarely gets a complete answer: to what extent have we actually kept it? When discussing child protection, what exactly should we protect first? Is it enough to equip children to face various risks, or is it time we also began reducing the risks constantly presented to them? Few issues illustrate this question as clearly as tobacco. So far, protecting children from cigarettes has largely been translated into efforts to change children’s behaviour. They are given counselling, invited to make commitments, and reminded to say ‘no’ to cigarettes. All of that is certainly important. However, no matter how good the message delivered, it is difficult to expect a child to swim against the current if their surrounding environment continues to teach them something different. No parent teaches their child to smoke. No teacher asks their pupils to try a cigarette after school. Yet, every day, there are other lessons children receive that are never listed in the curriculum. These lessons come from the environment: from stalls selling single cigarettes near schools, display cases packed with cigarette packs, adults smoking in public spaces, to peers who begin to see smoking as part of socialising. Before a child can even explain the dangers of smoking, they often first learn that smoking is something ordinary. The lessons taught by the environment are reflected in Indonesia’s current situation. The 2023 Indonesian Health Survey estimates there are approximately 5.9 million smokers aged 10–18 years. Meanwhile, the Global Youth Tobacco Survey shows the prevalence of smoking among adolescents aged 13–15 years increased from 18.3 percent in 2016 to 19.2 percent in 2019. These figures indicate that the problem is not merely that there are children who smoke, but that many children are starting to smoke. Every year, a new generation enters the cycle of tobacco consumption.