By: Mutiara Mauliza Simbolon and Naila Mahira
For the tobacco industry, young people are not just consumers – they are the industry’s sustainability target for securing future profits. As youth ambassadors working to denormalize the tobacco industry, we witness a battlefield that others often overlook: the digital screens in our pockets. The theme for World No Tobacco Day 2026, “Unmasking the Appeal: Countering Nicotine and Tobacco Addiction,” resonates deeply with the reality we face every day in Indonesia.
While tobacco billboards still loom big on our streets, the tobacco industry has quietly and strategically expanded into the digital world. Through algorithms, influencer partnerships, and subtle digital campaigns, the industry has successfully rebranded nicotine addiction as a lifestyle choice. To them, the youth are not the future that needs nurturing and protection. In their eyes, we are a new generation of “replacement smokers” to be manipulated to sustain their corporate profits.
In Indonesia, tobacco control is not just a health issue; it is a profound matter of social justice. We are alarmed that 6 out of 10 Indonesian households spend more on tobacco than on nutritious food like meat or vegetables. This drains our economy while directly fueling our nation’s stunting crisis, robbing children of their physical and cognitive potential before they even reach school age.
Beyond the health crisis lies a hidden, long-term economic drain: the “Youth Cost of Smoking.” When young people fall into nicotine addiction, the tobacco industry effectively robs them of their financial future. Money that should be invested in higher education, skills training, or personal savings is instead burned away for corporate profit. Research shows that tobacco spending also crowds out expenditure on education, healthcare, and other essential needs. On a larger scale, the resulting loss of future productivity and the socio-economic burden of chronic illnesses create a ticking time bomb for our national healthcare system. Ultimately, the industry systematically impoverishes Indonesian youth before they even get a chance to thrive and realize their dreams.
Therefore, the active involvement of youth advocates in policy-making is absolutely critical. Amplifying our voices is not a matter of tokenism or simply “protecting kids”; it is a strategic necessity to safeguard the Golden Indonesia 2045 vision. We cannot build a golden generation on a foundation of nicotine addiction. We are fighting to entirely denormalize tobacco in our schools and social spaces, including online, demanding that the industry’s deceptive “corporate social responsibility” (CSR) programs, like school scholarships and sports sponsorships, be exposed for what they truly are: a cynical tactic to buy the public’s silence and manufacture goodwill.
Statistics paint a grim picture of a regulatory vacuum in Indonesia, which remains one of the few nations yet to ratify the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), leaving our youth exposed to predatory tactics. The 2019 Global Youth Tobacco Survey found that 19.2% of Indonesian adolescents have already used tobacco products. The industry exploits our high internet penetration to flood platforms like Instagram and TikTok with “cool” imagery. By using synthetic nicotine and candy-flavored e-cigarettes, they successfully rebrand a deadly habit as a harmless tech accessory, by passing traditional advertising bans and targeting developing brains with precision.
The government took a step forward with Government Regulation No. 28 of 2024, which bans tobacco advertising on social media and digital platforms. But a regulation on paper is not the same as enforcement on the ground. Online marketing continues with the industry using influencers, event sponsorship, and lifestyle content to reach young audiences with almost no oversight, allowing tobacco companies to present themselves as modern, socially responsible, and “sustainable” brands while continuing to profit from addiction.
We cannot allow digital platforms to remain a “Wild West” for nicotine promotion. Protecting youths requires not just regulation, but rigorous monitoring, removal of violating content, and a total ban on tobacco and nicotine advertising, promotion, and sponsorship across all digital media including cross-border. The influence of the tobacco industry must be fully removed from youth-facing spaces, including education, social spaces, and digital platforms.
As the generation raised by algorithms and very familiar with how digital platforms work, there is only one solid solution we see when dealing with tobacco advertising, promotion, and sponsorship: the most effective way to protect youth is for us to never see tobacco and nicotine at all. No nicotine products should be advertised, no nicotine should be promoted, and ultimately, no nicotine should be normalized in any space at all. We expect that the government will not just play a passive role by regulating, but be proactive by preventing any harm from happening in the first place.
To truly achieve Golden Indonesia 2045, our future should not be dictated by an algorithm designed to monetize addiction. As the world commemorates World No Tobacco Day, we call on the government to stop picking and choosing which type of harm the youth will face and instead commit to a clear pathway to end tobacco and nicotine addiction altogether. Only through this endgame approach can Indonesian youth and generations to come be fully protected from a preventable epidemic.
We possess the passion and the resolve to break this cycle, but we urgently need the policy firewalls to protect our fundamental right to a healthy, productive, and tobacco- and nicotine-free future.
About the Authors:
Mutiara Mauliza Simbolon and Naila Mahira are Youth Ambassadors representing Indonesia within a broader ASEAN youth network campaigning to denormalize the tobacco industry. The campaign is led by the Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance (SEATCA) with support in Indonesia provided by Ruang Kebijakan Kesehatan Indonesia (RUKKI).