Cigarette ads on TV

Everyday, cigarette producers have aggressively advertise their trademarks and/or service marks on Indonesian televisions i.e. by sponsoring various shows, especially Musical & Sports, watched by people of all ages.

This is possible because according to the Broadcasting Law No. 32/2002 Article 46 Paragraph 36c, commercial advertisements may be aired by electronic media as long as they don’t show cigarettes or people smoking.
This implies that it is okay to advertise trademark and/or service mark of the cigarette producers.

In order to minimize the negative effect of such commercial ads, on 29 January 2009, the National Commission for Children Protection, the West Java Children’s Protection Council, and two children Alfie and Faza filed a petition with the Constitutional Court to request for deletion of above article, saying that such cigarette advertisement could encourage children to start smoking

Unfortunately, on 10 September the Constitutional Court rejected the petition saying that it has no legal grounds because cigarette is a legal commodity therefore cigarette promotion should also be seen as a legitimate action.

For details, please click here, here, here and here.

I hope that the government would make efforts to minimize the negative effect of cigarette commercial ads on TV perhaps by limiting the time for such ads to be aired.

Children's Trial in Tangerang

Are children playing a tossing-coin game dangerous for our society ?

That's the question that I asked myself after I read the news about 10 children, aged between 11 and 15, who were found Guilty of Gambling by the Judges of the District Court of Tangerang on Monday 27 July.

My above question is obvious, because the basis of the Court's verdict is Penal Code Article 303 which bans Gambling and carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison. While actually those children were merely playing a tossing-coin game with the prize of Rp 1.000,-(= 10 US Cents), when they were arrested by the Police at the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport on 29 May. For which, those children have to spent 29 days in confinement at the Tangerang Juvenile Detention Center.

Although the Court did not sent the children to prison, but sent them home to their parents based on the Children Protection Law, however the whole Court proceedings, which required the children to wear masks, have been widely criticized by the public, especially human rights activists and children protection agency. They argued that the guilty verdict will give the children labels as convicts.

In reaction to the public criticism, the chief of the council of judges for the trial explained that the guilty verdict was meant to educate those children so as not to repeat their action.
While the Attorney General Office explained that the Children Protection Law cannot be used as basis for indicting a case of Gambling by children, because Gambling is regulated by the Penal Code.

For details on the above, please click here, here, here, here, and here

As a father of a young son, I pray to God that such kind of verdict would be the last one passed on children playing games. I also hope that in the future all the judges in Indonesia would always be careful whenever trying cases that involve children i.e. by always using the Children Protection Law as basis, and consider the children psychological characteristics.

Photo: Courtesy of Detik

Porn Addiction

Children experts said that pornography addiction among children might cause brain damage that could lead to depression and behavioral problems similar to those caused by illegal drugs.

According to The Jakarta Globe/D.Sagita, this alarming theory has been mentioned by several speakers at a Seminar on the Effect of Pornography on Monday, as follows :
Dr. Jofisal Janis, the Head of Intelligence Development Center of the Department of Health, said that pornography addiction among children would damage the function and structure of their brain. He also said that children are vurnerable to brain damage because their brains absorb information faster than adults, and pornography addiction is likely to degrade their intelligence potential.
Donald Hilton Jr., a neurosurgeon from the Methodist Specialty & Transplant Hospital in San Antonio, Texas, said that pornography addiction could cause changes in the brain’s neurotransmitters and may interrupt oxygen metabolism in the brain. Such changes would cause the brain to focus too much on pleasure receptors, thus failing to control behavior.
We and Our Children Foundation reported a 2008 survey claiming that 66 percent of the 4th. through 6th. grade students in Jakarta & vicinity have seen pornography from various media, including comics, games, the Internet, movies and magazines.
The Children Protection Committee reported a 2007 survey claiming that 97 percent of 4,500 teenagers they surveyed in 12 big cities of Indonesia, had seen a blue movie.

Considering the dangerous effect that Pornography might bring to the children, many efforts have been made to ban pornography, such as by imposing strict laws e.g the Anti Pornography Law, Communication and Electronic Exchange Law etc. However, in my opinion, the main cause of Pornography Addiction among children is caused by their parents unability to take a good care of their children. If they always pay full attention on their children, such addiction could be prevented or minimised.

Street Children & Adoption

Whenever I stopped my car at the traffic light on many streets in Jakarta, little children at the ages between 4 and 10 years old, would approach my car to beg for money.

It breaks my heart to see those children who are supposed to be studying at school and/or play many kinds of games afterwards. At that time I would wonder who are their parents, why are they allowed to be in the streets. If the parents cannot raise their children properly, why didn't the Department of Social take care of them. If the department can't, they can always arrange individuals to do it under supervision, for example through adoption. However, adoption process in Indonesia is not an easy thing.

I remmember accompanying an American couple to Sayap Ibu Orphanage in South Jakarta, ten years ago. The couple, Mike and Annie Jones, married for 8 years but childless and had lived in Indonesia for 4 years, wanted to adopt a 2 years old baby girl from the orphanage. Although they have fulfilled most of the conditions (Media Anggara Blawg) e.g married min. 5 years, lived in Indonesia for min. 3 years, but considering that Mike was 47 years old and Anne 42 years old, while according to regulation the husband should be 45 max. and the wife 40 max. their adoption request was rejected by the orphanage.
Beside Mike and Anne, I also knew several Indonesian couples whose adoption requests were rejected due to same reason.

I can understand the reason for limitation of age of the persons who want to adopt children, but in my opinion it should not be implemented very strictly. For example even if the couple are older but if they can secure the children's future, for example by insurance policy, then they are eligible to adopt the children.

In conclusion, I felt that adoption is one of the way that can reduce the number of street children. For which purpose, the adoption regulation should not be so strict on only one aspect for example age of parents, but should consider other aspects as well.