Vaping promotion on social media impacting youth in Australia

Image courtesy of Channel News Asia

by Alex Morgan

Social media platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook predominantly exhibit vaping in a favourable manner, giving the impression that e-cigarette usage is widespread and socially acceptable. In Australia, traditional tobacco advertising has been prohibited for decades; however, e-cigarettes are extensively promoted on social media, undermining some of the progress made throughout earlier years.

Most platforms have content policies explicitly prohibiting the promotion of tobacco product usage, including e-cigarettes. However, recent research demonstrates these policies are regularly breached with minimal repercussions. E-cigarette usage among young individuals, including those from Australia, is on the rise, along with mounting evidence regarding the detrimental health effects of e-cigarettes.

Positive social media messages regarding vaping may especially influence young people, who are the most frequent social media users. In some instances, these messages have been observed to directly target teenagers. Studies indicate that young individuals exposed to social media posts featuring e-cigarettes are more inclined to vape and perceive e-cigarettes positively. This is applicable to both e-cigarette advertising and user-generated content, leading to creators effectively marketing e-cigarette products on behalf of the companies involved.

A recent study analysed 264 English languages user-generated e-cigarette videos on TikTok and evaluated them against the platform’s content policy during February. The findings revealed that 98% of the videos portrayed e-cigarettes positively, while over a quarter of the videos explicitly violated TikTok’s content policy by promoting vaping products for purchase.

Full story: https://thethaiger.com/news/business/vaping-promotion-on-social-media-impacting-youth-in-australia

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