• March 29, 2024

Online crackdown

 Online crackdown

Indonesia’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology has banned all online cigarette advertisements in a bid to suppress the number of youth smokers, reports The Jakarta Post.

The decision was made following a request from Health Minister Nila Moeloek to take down all tobacco-related ads on social media platforms, and also on online games and websites. The ministry will use a special web crawler, which costs nearly IDR200 billion ($14 million), to detect and block accounts that violate regulations.

Moeloek said that teenage smokers take up the habit because of high exposure to online cigarette ads, citing a study by the London School of Public Relations showing that three in four Indonesian teenagers know about cigarettes from advertising on the internet.

Nielsen Indonesia says tobacco firms spent IDR1.6 trillion on television ads last year compared with IDR5.4 trillion in 2017, leading to the belief that part of the spending has shifted online.

“Because of this, I ask the communications and information technology minister to immediately [take down online cigarette ads] to save our children from tobacco addiction,” Moeloek said. “An addict will continue smoking throughout their life and have a high risk of contracting catastrophic illnesses.”