2-Year-Old Smoking Cigarette Video Causes Outrage (Video)

There is a video gone viral on the world wide web of a 2-year-old Indonesian child smoking a cigarette. The video shows the chubby little guy puffing away, looking every bit a caricature -- leg propped up, cigarette twirling between his fingers, blowing smoke upward into the air -- of the carefree smoker. But the viral video has garnered outrage throughout the world.

Ardi Rizal, according to reports and reported by the Associated Press and other news outlets, is just a 2-year-old child, but he already has the smoking habit of someone usually much older. The toddler in the video smokes up to 40 cigarettes a day and his father claims that if he wants a cigarette and does not get it, he throws a tantrum.

Although it has not been confirmed, it has been reported that Ardi Rizal's father gave him his first cigarette when he was 18 months old. ABC News reports that town officials of Musi Banyuasin, a fishing village in South Sumatra province, have offered to buy the family a vehicle if they get the 2-year-old to stop smoking. The father has reportedly refused.

And this isn't the first time little Ardi Rizal's smoking video went viral. It caused an uproar in March as well. That is, until YouTube pulled the video. But, like most things viral, it simply bided its time and presented itself again.

Ardi Rizal's video is not the only case of a 2-year-old smoking in recent years, although it does seem to be the only one on video. Back in June 2009, a 2-year-old Chinese boy made world headlines as a pack-a-day smoker. The child, Tong Liangliang, was taught, according to the Daily Mail, to smoke when he was just 18 months old as well. The child's father gave the child cigarettes believing that the habit might alleviate the pain from a hernia from which the child suffered. Being 18 months old at the time, the child was too young for corrective surgery. According to China Radio International, the father was not aware the boy had such a habit until he noticed the increased number of cigarettes the child was smoking per day.

The Daily Mail also reported that in 2005, a 37-year-old man applied to the Guinness Book of Records as being the youngest smoker, having begun smoking at the age of 3. His application was denied on grounds that it "promoted a harmful habit." Considering Tong Liangliang and Ardi Rizal, he was a bit late getting started to claim youngest status anyway...

The video of 2-year-old Ardi Rizal follows...

Sources:

DailyMail.com
ABCNews.go.com
Associated Press via KKTV.com