Medical professionals have called for an absolute ban on the internet sale of e-cigarettes in Australia after experts raised the alarm about an increase in TikTok videos pressuring young children to start smoking and vaping.
Peak medical groups gave horrifying testimony to an investigation into Australia’s new smoking and vaping legislation on Wednesday.
According to the Australian Medical Association (AMA), e-cigarette vendors are ‘actively and aggressively’ targeting youth on social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat.
In their application, they stated that there has been an increase in videos marketing e-cigarettes on digital platforms like TikTok. Of these movies, 63% show the product in a positive light and have had over 1.1 billion views.
It is against TikTok’s community rules policy for users to upload, broadcast, or share any video that ‘offers the purchase, sale, trade, or solicitation of narcotics or other controlled substances, alcohol, or tobacco products’.
Children are being exposed to more and more hazardous online digital content, according to AMA NSW President Michael Bonning, who blames digital platform owners for their lax content management.
He declared that legislation enacting a retail prohibition on non-prescription e-cigarettes must be passed “urgently” by the government.
Following a protracted fall in nicotine usage [in Australia], he observed an increase in smokers, vapers, chronic cough cases, new lung diseases in young people, and persons consuming more than three to four packs of cigarettes a day through vaping.
‘It took decades for the health risks associated with tobacco use to become apparent, since the influential tobacco industry consistently refuted the available data and advertised their highly addictive products.
The same strategies are being used with vapes today to introduce nicotine to a new generation by targeting younger consumers and downplaying the negative effects on health.
The Tobacco Vape Research Collective (TVRC) claims that the use of vivid colours, “fun” tastes, and highly sexualized imagery in social media apps is a common strategy used to sell vaping to youth.
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