Two year old toddler smokes 2 packs of cigarettes a day


EMBED-Ardi Rizal – The real SMOKING BABY !! – Watch more free videos
You may have already seen this video of a two year old child from Sumatra (an island in Western Indonesia) smoking like a chimney. It’s shocking and kind of sickeningly funny until you realize that it’s not a computer generated hoax. It doesn’t seem to be faked and this poor little kid is suffering. Little Ardi Rizal smokes two packs a day and will freak out if he’s denied his cigarettes. His dad, who got him hooked at 18 months, doesn’t see a problem with it. Ardi is too out of shape to play with other kids and I would bet that the other mothers are pretty careful to keep their kids away from him.

THESE are the first shocking pictures of smoking toddler Ardi Rizal – who throws tantrums if he can’t puff 40 cigs a day.

The Sun told on Saturday how the two-year-old got hooked after dad Mohammed gave him a [cigarette] at 18 months.

Now he weighs 4st [56 lb, 25kg] and trundles round on a toy truck blowing smoke rings – too unfit to run with other kids.

Mum Diana, 26, wept: “He’s totally addicted. If he doesn’t get cigarettes, he gets angry and screams and batters his head against the wall. He tells me he feels dizzy and sick.”

Ardi will smoke only one brand and his habit costs his parents £3.78 ($5.44) a day in Musi Banyuasin, Indonesia.

Officials have offered to buy the family a car if he quits.

But fishmonger Mohammed, 30, said: “He looks pretty healthy to me. I don’t see the problem.”

[From The Sun via Gawker]

At least now this baby is getting international attention and someone will step in to help him. How do you even get a toddler to stop smoking? Do you give him herbal cigarettes and put him on the patch? It’s sad how the latest viral videos all seem to be about adults exploiting kids.

Front photo credit: BARM/Fame Pictures

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

70 Responses to “Two year old toddler smokes 2 packs of cigarettes a day”

Comments are Closed

We close comments on older posts to fight comment spam.

  1. Sue says:

    Wow – that is really sad!

  2. meme says:

    this is criminal. criminal.

  3. flourpot says:

    I’ve seen this here and there tho I haven’t watched it. Nor will I watch it here. Boot out the dad and mum will have to deal with withdrawals. From what I’ve read, they only last a week. The rest is psychological. It’s a kid – they get over stuff fast. Jeez, people are ignorant.

  4. Kayleigh says:

    Cute kid!
    Really sad that they aren’t aware that their little one probably is too unhealthy to run because he has asthma or tar in his lungs from the 6 months he’s been smoking. When the hell did people start giving kids smokes?! I smoked for 5 or 6 years and I maybe ONCE smoked 2 packs in a day (I was probably drunk…) This little guy is going to get cancer or emphysema by the time hes 5!

  5. ogechi says:

    I saw this pictures yesterday, a friend of mine sent it. It became topical amongst my colleagues, i honestly thought that the ‘end time’ is here. An abomination and a clear mark of 6-6-6.

  6. cedar falls says:

    Gnnaarrgh!! This is EXACTLY why some people should never have children. I remember an old episode of Maury which documented the life of a staggeringly obese 3-year old boy. We saw the mother give him monster bowls of cereal & pancakes for breakfast and 2 adult portions of BBQ ribs and fries for lunch, then weep with self-pity that the public looked accusingly at her as if his weight and health issues were somehow her responsibility!

    Wean him of the cancer sticks, you muppets – either little Ardi “gets angry and screams” for a few days now, or in a few years you’ll bury him.

  7. Lisa says:

    You have got to be fk’n kidding me. It is really frightening how ignorant some people are.

  8. bellaluna says:

    Giving my 18-month-old child a cigarette would be the last thing my husband would ever do…because I’d kill him if he did.

  9. Lway says:

    That is just poor parenting – really.

    They are supposed to keep him safe and out of harms way!

  10. Lucy says:

    HE’S TWO YEARS OLD. Just take them away from him!

  11. Dorothy says:

    Gee, I don’t even let my 4 and 5 year old have straight juice or soda!!

  12. Stephie says:

    Don’t they have child endangerment laws over there? Wow.

  13. zen says:

    amen to Cedar Falls.
    I used to see that same stuff on Maury and I’d get so pissed Id have to change the channel.
    This is why there should be some sort of test before being parent.
    This is sickening.

  14. kimotemp says:

    if you look at his motor control, he moves way too fast and co-ordinated for a 2 year old. Give a 2 year old a crayon, something that most 2 year olds have plenty of practice using and see how it compares to the 2 year old in this video, as an example.
    Hopefully this is real. Because it keeps the internet going. If it weren’t for global bad parenting, then there would be nothing interesting to watch on the internet. 😀

  15. original kate says:

    somewhere there are a few tobacco CEOs who are jumping up and down in glee.

  16. Maritza says:

    Poor kid, he has no chance of reaching his teenage years. The father is a moron but I the mother is even worse for allowing this.

  17. Feebee says:

    If it wasn’t for the fact he’s been hooked on tobacco by his idiot father and enabled by his mother, the video would be quite amusing. His control over that cigarette is quite amazing for a 2 year old.

    Even in Asia where smoking isn’t seen as bad, this surely must shock someone into intervening on this kid’s behalf. Someone has to save his life, otherwise it’ll be over soon.

  18. heb says:

    can he light them himself?

  19. TaylorB says:

    That just pisses me off. What is wrong with some people? People who find it funny to give a baby a smoke, or slip someone acid, or get their dog/cat stoned should have their butts kicked up and down the street. If adult people of ‘sound’ mind take drugs or smoke of their own free will that is their choice, but slipping drugs (and I consider tobacco a drug) to people, animals, and especially babies is just horrid.

  20. susanne says:

    I was amazed by the fine motor skills, too. I guess addiction can teach some skills!
    And 56lbs! my nearly 6 year old kid only weighs 45, and she’s really tall! The inability of the child to PLAY doesn’t tell the parents anything?!? UGH. I wish it took smarts to procreate.

  21. Kimble says:

    I think it’s fairly obvious that most of the contributors here have no idea of the society/culture in Sumatra or Indonesia in general.

    Putting our western values on a culture we neither know nor understand is pointless.

    Yes, to us this seems ignorant/moronic blah blah blah, but to millions of rural Indonesians, this would not even raise an eyebrow …

  22. meme says:

    @kimble – are you out of your mind? a toddler smoking should not be acceptable anywhere.

  23. Wholesome1 says:

    Poor little sweetheart. His parents are killing him.

  24. jeannified says:

    That is absolutely ridiculous! I hope someone DOES come and take him away from those parents and get him off the ciggies! Terrible!

  25. Tia C says:

    @ kimble: Yes, WE are the ignorant ones.

  26. judyjudy says:

    This is heartbreaking.

  27. Katija says:

    It’s horrible adorable. I’m sorry, I know it’s totally wrong, but babies/animals doing people things totally cracks me up. This baby is crazy cute, and it’s hard not to chuckle when you see him smoking. (Yes, I can think that and still also think that the father should be shot.)

  28. Linda says:

    This is really not funny!!

  29. normade says:

    Am I the only one who thinks this is totally fake??? He can twirl the cig between his fingers! Even I can’t do that! There is no way a 2 year old baby has motor skills like that.

  30. Brittney says:

    This child’s growth has probably already been irreparably stunted… how is this not illegal where they live?

  31. moi says:

    if this is indeed real, this is just a case of bad parenting. take the smokes away and let him scream. He’s two. he will get over it eventually – it may be hell in the meantime, but that’s what you get for giving your toddler cigarettes. HA!

  32. Jeri says:

    OMG. How horrible. The father should be prosecuted for abuse & the child taken away.

  33. Melinda says:

    @Kimbal- This is not a case of ethnocentrism, this is child abuse, I don’t care where you are.

  34. Anne says:

    How do you get a 2 year old to quit smoking? You don’t give him cigarettes. What is he going to do? Drive to the store and buy some?
    So he throws temper tantrums until he passes out for a few days. He feels dizzy and sick, poor little guy! Child abuse.

  35. Wif says:

    “I think it’s fairly obvious that most of the contributors here have no idea of the society/culture in Sumatra or Indonesia in general.”

    Nope, I’m sure we don’t.

    “Putting our western values on a culture we neither know nor understand is pointless.”

    Couldn’t agree more.

    “Yes, to us this seems ignorant/moronic blah blah blah, but to millions of rural Indonesians, this would not even raise an eyebrow …”

    Do you *know* that? Have you seen it? The article states fairly clearly that the mother is upset by the smoking; she is seeing the issues that the smoking is creating for her child. Even rural Indonesians aren’t blind.

  36. MMF says:

    His motor skills are way to advanced for a two year old.
    Lets hope, this is a hoax.

  37. nnn says:

    # 21 Kimble

    Then why OFFICIALS OF HIS OWN COUNTRY have stepped in in order to stop this obscene aberration ?

    Cigarettes are a western product and have been introduced in third world country later.

    Even today, very few women compared to those living in western countries smoke, let alone teenagers. Children ? Absolutely not !

    A two years old smoking cigarettes is a UNIVERSAL ABERRATION…my bad, it’s straight up an abomination of epic proportions in every continent…hence that case seems to be the sole among the 6 billions people on Earth !

  38. Larry says:

    There are no words to describe how I feel right now. These parents are morons and have no right AT ALL to be bringing up a child. The authorities should remove him from their care immediately

  39. Unknown says:

    I am having a hard time believing this is real. I have a two year old. He wouldn’t know what to do with a cigarette. He would burn himself.
    Of course, No one smokes around him, so he’s never even seen it.
    But this is still too hard to believe. He smokes two pack a day? This baby would probaly cry if anything was taken from him, not just a cigarette.
    My son cries when I don’t let him run around by himself near heavy traffic. He cries when he doesn’t get his way. I don’t think this baby really can care about smoking. If anything, his paretns are choosing this for him. He is in no way choosing to smoke.
    If this is real, it is very sad, I agree.

  40. gg says:

    Okay, the dad probably started this as an entertaining diversion and realized he will get attention and money, same for the kid, does it for attention. The video on this site has been taken down but there are other videos of the child smoking like a pro. I have no doubt it is real and that the boy is addicted. It’s awful. In these poor countries people do horrible things to get attention because any attention might mean some money.

  41. Kimble says:

    Oh come on, you really all thought I was condoning this?

    I was just trying to point out to some of you that comparing your middle class American child rearing to that in Sumatra is just bloody ridiculous!

    No, I don’t let my children smoke, and I have no expectation of selling them into the sex trade or into servitude in a richer Asian or Arabic nation either – such is life for many rural indonesian children – and I don’t think that is right either!!!!

  42. Lucinda says:

    What’s interesting is that his left hand is way more coordinated than his right. His hand with the cigarette always makes it exactly to his mouth. But the right hand tries to cover the mouth and kind of misses. I’m not an expert at what can be done with video but something is weird here. As someone pointed out earlier, with as many puffs as he takes, the cigarette stays the same length the entire time.

  43. LLove says:

    This video is not fake, no matter how much I wish it was. Everyone is appalled at how the father could even give his 18 month old baby a cigg and rightfully so! But this is in Indonesia, more specifically Sumatra, a small rural island in Western Indonesia. Now I’m not an expert or any anthropologist or anything, but Im from the Philippines and we’re pretty much right above them (geographically not in status or something!)…and both are 3rd world countries. So that is most likely why no authoritive figure or other individual has really done something inlcuding to the parents. And from what I know, tobacco companies in Indonesia are pretty much the biggest corporations and have the most money. Smoking ciggs in Indonesia is VERY common and theyre available EVERYWHERE….

    This really makes me so sad..Im trying to quit ciggs myself and I have NEVER smoked 2 packs a day!!! Im guessing since its Indonesian ciggs they probably d ont have any tobacco or ciggarette laws and so it probably is a lot stronger and more detrimental to health than the ciggs in the US or Europe …. ugh I hate his father.

    Sorry for the typos, my keyboard is all messed up from cookie crumbs 😛

  44. GatsbyGal says:

    Someone’s going to be swooping in soon and taking this kid away, I can guarantee you that.

  45. jenna says:

    that is awful to let that child smoke. His parents are ignorants for doing this to him, just so they could have their time of fame by being on the internet, they are pathetic!!!

  46. Shannon says:

    Whoa, how is the mother “worse” than the father in this situation? She’s clearly upset and wants it to stop. In Sumatran culture, that’s as much as she’s probably allowed to do. Her husband is of higher status than she is in their society, and if he says it’s fine, she’s stuck. His word is the final word. She could probably be beaten if she protests. So for the people blaming her, please use your heads!

    And the officials are obviously going about this all wrong. The moment the father denied this was a problem and refused to take a car for taking away his son’s cigarettes was the moment he should have been put in jail to think about why giving a baby tobacco isn’t a good idea.

  47. Squirtle says:

    Well just to comment on if this is fake or not…I think that if he has a 2 yr old size lungs it’s not as if he could suck down the whole cig in a few puffs…It would probably take him awhile to smoke just one. I think it must be exaggerated about 2 packs a day. That just can’t be possible, I’m a smoker and I can’t have more than 10 a day without getting a headache and my lungs starting to hurt…but I do think this is a real video, as sick and disgusting as that may be..

  48. Wif says:

    In regards to the authenticity of the video, I asked my husband who is a graphic designer and software developer and he said that it’s not photoshopped. In fact, his exact words were, “It would be way easier to teach a two year old to smoke than to photoshop that video that well.”

  49. Shay says:

    This is the result of the tobacco industry profiting in Asia. If you read about the percentage of smokers in Indonesia and other Asian countries, you’ll fall off your chair.
    This is also why lawsuits don’t stop these companies, not when they can profit elsewhere. This is just another case of parents exploiting a child for a few extra dollars. It doesn’t surprise me. Sure, I find it sickening, but as long as we have poverty, we’ll have parents exploiting children.

  50. Mistral says:

    !

    I hate cigarettes…

  51. cc says:

    “how do you get a kid to stop smoking”??? you stop giving them cigarettes. he has a tamtrum? yes. two year olds will do that.
    any more questions?

  52. cc says:

    “how do you get a kid to stop smoking”??? you stop giving him cigarettes. he has a tantrum? yes. two year olds will do that.
    any more questions?

  53. Lia says:

    The world is failing this child by not stepping in to stop this abuse my the moron who fathered him. If this idiot was punching this child every day, would someone do something?

  54. Aspen says:

    Anyone with a kid knows this cannot be real. Children that age can’t even draw shapes with a steady hand. This is physically impossible.

    The kid ought to be studied by science for his amazing superhuman dexterity. Perhaps they could use THAT as a reason to remove him from the home.

  55. Jaylan says:

    I think it is a problem of INFORMATION if those persons knew that cigarettes could provoke huge health problems, they won’t give it to their child. Stop being so arrogant. I am not defending the parents but they don’t have all the informations you have, that’s a fact.

  56. Kuncen says:

    I did a writeup on Ardi Rizal and the ethical dilemmas posed by his smoking – who is to blame? Big Tobacco? The parents? Indonesian society? Check it out at TalkingSkull.com and let me know what you think.

    http://talkingskull.com/article/truth-about-smoking-babies

  57. AkhenAton says:

    Cute little kid but a lot of old souls are getting new bodies so maybe its a habit he picked up from his past life!! Otherwise its just wrong at levels unpresedented

  58. Slymm27 says:

    Really? Maybe next video we see, will be of this child having tantric sex!!!

  59. Whiz says:

    I agree @ KIMBLE. Indonesia is one of the 3rd largest consumers of tobacco in the world. Just about everyone smokes and 3 percent of kids 5–9 smoke there. To us westerners this is unacceptable, but it has become part of their culture and not a big deal. Indonesians don’t view smoking as a health risk, they view it as more of a bad habit. These parents didn’t think they were doing anything wrong, but since the baby was so young it became an amusement. This baby was a tourist attraction over there and since there was so much negativity from foreigners, the govt told the parents they’d give them a car if they could stop the baby from smoking. There is no smoking education over there and the tobacco companies won’t fund it because they make too much money from that country. From what I read the baby is now in rehab. Blame lack of education for this problem.

  60. ViktoryGin says:

    Honestly, I do believe that this kid has become a cash cow for his parents, who are probaby dirt poor and need the income. I’m not condoning this abysmal lack of judgment concerning the kid’s health. It’s just that I’m currently living in Asia, and some parents do much worse with their kids if it means food on the table (i.e. selling 9 year-old girls for sex). Situational ethics.

  61. oh hey says:

    I’ve smoked cigs on and off in my life, I honestly don’t see how an ADULT could handle two packs a day, let alone a kid.

    I agree with Celebitchy; I’m also getting tired of exploitive video of kids.

  62. crazydaisy says:

    @ cc, my sentiments exactly. so what if he throws a tantrum? he’ll get over it. and live to tell the tale.

  63. irmawati says:

    I’m from Indonesia….This is sadly REAL…and I agree it is SICK…the department of health of Sumatra came to see the kid and try to make him not smoke for couples minutes and He was throwing tantrum. Sadly…the parents actually looked proud 🙁 This is a bad example for others kids…I dont want to blame the parents BUT…it is the Parents obligation to take good care of their children…do you think cigarettes cheap? it is not cheap! the parents waste health n money that could be save for education! SADLY….some people think this is funny 🙁 🙁 🙁

  64. babyhugsy says:

    I’m an Indonesian. I can assure you this baby is real and yes, we don’t see smoking as that bad when it comes to adults, but this baby sends a shocking wave throughout the nation too.

  65. gg says:

    You can’t fake shots like this. Besides, it has all kinds of press now.

    I think that the increased dexterity of the child is boosted by being hopped up on nicotine. Even one pack a day is enough to keep you jacked all day, and especially for a baby like this. He must be high as a kite, poor kid.

  66. Ayu says:

    Well, to say to u all that the video was real. It was on national tv here in indonesia.
    N yes, the baby was in rehab. N thanks to this publicity there is a gain concern on this matter.
    hopefully, the government here can really take this matter (bad parenting) seriously. Coz, children in Indonesia don’t have that much of protection (in this case from their own parent’s stupidity). There won’t be any punishment from the father-i can tell.

  67. ashley says:

    that is really sad, a 2 year old, at 2 you should be playing and running and enjoying no responsibilitys! hope he quits its not good for him… and his parents should be ashamed of them selvs.

  68. Monkey says:

    I didn’t laugh out loud, but it was kind of cute. By the end of the video I felt bad however. I’m amazed the parents found it entertaining long enough to let the kid get hooked on nicotine.

  69. Johnson says:

    I’m planning on shipping a few cartons to this great gook patriot, he has the right idea, smoking is the future of our children.

  70. top 10 says:

    Hello, This is a really nice looking site. Are you a website designer or did someone make this lovely design for you?