What is a cigarette card?
In the early morning, the scene on the way to work was striking: it was not the usual old people who rummaged through the garbage bins on the roadside, but a group of primary school students who were only eight or nine years old. The purpose of doing this is not to look for food or discarded items, but to search for cigarette cases and fold them into something called "cigarette cards" to participate in the game. It is worth noting that these primary school students have a special preference for cigarette cases, and cheap varieties are not popular with them.
Recently, among the primary and secondary school students, a game called "taking a cigarette card" has quietly emerged. The rules of the game are simple. Children use the folded or cut cards of cigarette boxes to play against each other, and the winner can get the card of the loser by tapping the ground to turn the other side’s "cigarette card" over. Such a scene is reminiscent of the memory of collecting cartoon cards in the childhood of "post-80s" and "post-90s". Therefore, some people think that this is just a harmless entertainment for children, and it may also reduce their time of indulging in electronic products. However, when the "cigarette card" is associated with minors, especially considering the sensitivity of cigarettes themselves, people can’t help worrying. Some parents reported that children knew nothing about cigarettes before they came into contact with "cigarette cards", but now they can easily distinguish various brands.
What is even more worrying is that "cigarette cards" have not only become children’s popular playthings, but also spawned a trading market. The value of some rare "cigarette cards" is even as high as tens of yuan, and the supply is in short supply. This phenomenon urges children to rummage through cigarette cases in trash cans in the streets and lanes, which not only makes the hygiene situation worrying, but also may make children feel curious and close to tobacco invisibly.
The Beijing Tobacco Control Association pointed out that the "cigarette card" is actually a way to spread tobacco information in disguise. Children’s premature and frequent contact with tobacco trademarks may plant psychological seeds for trying to smoke. In addition, the lawyers also warned that the act of selling "cigarette cards" to minors may constitute an illegal act according to the law on the protection of minors, because it violates the laws and regulations protecting the physical and mental health of minors.
In this regard, education, market supervision and tobacco departments in many places have acted quickly to jointly investigate the surrounding campus and the children’s products market, and strive to completely rectify the circulation problem of "cigarette cards".
Faced with the challenge brought by "cigarette card", all sectors of society need to take actions, not only to effectively curb its negative effects, but also to provide healthy entertainment choices for children to meet their social and psychological needs. This undoubtedly requires the joint efforts of parents, schools and all sectors of society to guide children to grow up healthily.