Youth smoking is a worldwide problem

Children who smoke may become addicted, are likely to keep smoking when they grow up, and risk contracting lung cancer and other serious diseases later in life.

No one wants children to smoke. The question is how to stop them from smoking.

Efforts by parents, public health groups and governments

Parents play an influential role, educating their children about healthy lifestyles and telling them how important it is not to smoke. Adult smokers should keep their cigarettes out of the reach of children and shouldn’t smoke when kids are around.

Many public health groups are also working hard to prevent youth smoking by developing educational programs designed for children.

Governments can contribute by passing laws that make it a crime to sell cigarettes to children and by strictly enforcing those laws. Those who sell to the underage should be fined, and if they reoffend they should lose the right to sell tobacco products.

Our own efforts Over the years we’ve supported youth smoking prevention efforts in several ways, and we’ll continue to do so. We focus on working with governments and retailers to stop kids from buying tobacco. We advocate minimum age laws and impress on governments the need to strictly enforce them. We train retailers to inform them about the law, their responsibilities and how best to prevent sales to children. In line with Article 16 of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, we also give retailers signage to indicate that selling to minors is illegal.

We’re not education experts, and you won't find us in classrooms. But we do give financial support to the youth smoking prevention efforts of teachers, community groups, and other specialists around the world.