Youth social media use linked to tobacco and vaping

A new study shows that children who spend time on social media are more likely to vape and smoke cigarettes than their peers.

Analyzing data from 10,808 people aged 10 to 25 in the UK, a research team from the Imperial College London School of Public Health found a shocking correlation between screen time and a surge in the adoption of these nasty habits.

According to the study, youngsters who spent more than seven hours a day on social media were nearly eight times more likely to smoke cigarettes and four times more likely to vape.

This news comes as the number of children hospitalized for vaping-related issues continues to escalate. According to the FDA, more than 2.5 million U.S. children admit to regularly vaping, with the CDC reporting that 1 out of 5 high schoolers and 1 out of 10 middle schoolers are vaping at school. 

The new study, published in the medical journal Thorax, revealed that a mere 0.8% of kids who do not use social media vape, but the number spikes to 2.4% among those who use social media for just one to three hours daily, and increases to 4% for those that spend seven-plus hours scrolling.

Results were similarly staggering when it came to cigarette use. The UK study found that 2% of participants who do not use social media reported smoking cigarettes, compared to a whopping 9.2% who used social media for one to three hours a day, and nearly 16% who spent seven-plus hours per day on social platforms.

The negative consequences of nicotine use in children are well established. Nicotine has been proven to seriously impact the developing brain, causing cognitive change and further addictive tendencies. Vaping also harms kids’ developing lungs, with e-cigarettes linked to serious health problems, like asthma in children. There’s also a link between youth nicotine use and depression, anxiety and impulse control.

Researchers in the UK study said there is, “compelling evidence that vape companies are using social media to market their products. Social media may be driving cigarette smoking and e-cigarette use through both direct, targeted advertisements and the use of paid influencers by the tobacco industry.”

The Post reports on the sinister sales technique, “Vaping was first marketed as a seemingly benign invention, aimed at adults trying to quit tobacco addictions. However, vaping companies quickly moved on to marketing vapes to adolescents, using alluring flavors. According to the CDC, 69% of kids in middle school have been exposed to vaping, partly driven by the extreme internet marketing efforts of electronic cigarette companies.” 

Researchers said companies that own social media platforms have ‘substantial power’ if not moral responsibility to adjust exposure to marketing materials that promote smoking and vaping.

Hazel Cheeseman, deputy chief executive of the UK’s Action on Smoking and Health said of the new study: ‘Getting rid of children’s exposure to tobacco promotion has been important to reducing rates of smoking among teenagers. This new study adds to the evidence that online promotions are contributing to children’s likelihood of trying vaping. Young people deserve to be just as well protected in online spaces as they are in physical spaces.”

Sadly, online spaces are not the sole hunting ground of the tobacco industry, in October 2023, The Post reported that e-cigarette company JUUL had sent a representative to a private high school on New York’s Upper East Side.