Disgraceful. Deplorable. Downright disgusting.
The above photo has gone viral on Indonesian social media for the past couple of days. Yes, that’s a baby boy. probably no more than two years old, and yes, an adult is holding up a lit cigarette for him to smoke.
That adult is his mother. She was also the one who posted the photo on Facebook.
The mother, Ve Royy Alvero (most likely a pseudonym), proudly wrote “Jagoan mom&papp” (mommy and daddy’s hero) in the photo’s caption. We truly feel sorry and fear for a child that is being brought up by such clueless and frankly idiotic parents.
Rightfully so, the mother came under heavy criticism from netizens. Unfortunately, both her Facebook account and that of the father’s (who was tagged in the photo) were both deleted soon after, so very little is known of the parents and the baby’s identities.
Even so, Merdeka has a record of interactions between the mother and angry netizens in the photo’s comments section. In it, the mother clarified that her baby didn’t ACTUALLY smoke the cigarette; rather the cigarette was just placed in front of his mouth.
“He didn’t actually smoke it… It was just stuck on [his mouth]… If I didn’t let him have [the cigarette] he’d get upset and bang his head on the wall, which is even more dangerous,” Ve Royy Alvero wrote, as picked up by Merdeka.
We hope that wasn’t an indication that the baby is already addicted to cigarettes at such a young age.
Meanwhile, the National Commission on the Protection of Children is looking into ways to make sure that the baby’s parents answer for their crime.
“That’s a violation of children’s rights. The cigarette smoke is very harmful. A child deserves to get fresh air,” said Arist Merdeka Sirait, head of the National Commission on the Protection of Children, as quoted by Merdeka on Tuesday.
“When a mother posts [a photo like that], that’s the same as telling her son to destroy his own health, especially an infant, as infants can’t do anything [on their own]. [The parents] can be punished for destroying their child’s health.”
Arist is imploring for anyone who knows the identity of the mother to come forward and report her to the police.
“The family [of the mother] could report her, but citizens can report her too. But we must have more information about the case before we can bring charges towards the mother,” Arist said.
“Three to six months in prison should be harsh enough for the mother.”
Sadly, this is not the first time a smoking baby has made headlines in Indonesia. In fact, Aldi Rizal made headlines all over the world a few years ago for having a 40-cigarette a day habit when he was 2 years old (an addiction he was later able to quit). We are seriously in danger of becoming “that country with all the smoking babies,” so the more punishment and public shaming these parents get, the better.
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