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Where there ’ s smoke
TikTok ’ s concerning video trend .
School-aged children are being exposed to an increasing number of vaping and e-cigarette videos on TikTok , prompting calls for more regulation of the social media platform .
University of Queensland researchers analysed more than 800 videos featuring the modern smoking practice .
As well as being viewed more than 1.1 billion times , 63 per cent portrayed vaping and e-cigarettes in a positive light .
Lead author and PhD student Tianze Sun said there had been a massive increase in the number of young people using vapes and e-cigarettes in recent years .
“ This could partly be due to exposure from friends and influencers on social media ,” she said .
The hashtag # vape has had more than five billion views on TikTok alone .
Sun said while plenty of research had examined the impact of other platforms like Facebook and Twitter , there was little on this emerging social media platform .
Co-author Dr Gary Chan said most of the videos included in the study were of a light-hearted manner and contained little reference to the health consequences .
“ Videos that showed vaping tricks had a significantly higher number of views at 487 million , compared to videos about nicotine and addiction at only 195 million ,” he said .
“ Adolescents are susceptible to peer influence , increasingly via social media , and this is a concern when emerging evidence suggests vaping has detrimental effects on the developing brain , lungs and heart .”
Chan said even more concerningly was the fact TikTok ’ s algorithm was such that users will be recommended videos similar to ones they ’ ve already watched . “ They ’ re actively promoting this content to young people ,” he said . Sun , Chan and the study ’ s other authors are hoping the research will lead to increased regulation , to prevent children from accessing videos that show smoking in a positive light . ■
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