Vape sellers reportedly market their products to teens using the video-sharing platform TikTok.
Popular video-sharing platform TikTok faces a new problem, one that has nothing to do with dangerous challenges that already led to serious injuries, and in some cases, fatal consequences. New reports reveal that vape sellers are using the platform to reach the teen market and sell them e-cigarettes.
Under a 2019 U.S. law, it is illegal to market or sell e-cigarettes to anyone below 21 years old. However, vape sellers may have found a way to skirt the law with help from the video-sharing platform TikTok and continue marketing or selling vape products to their teen market. Sources reveal that vape sellers on TikTok offer various flavored disposable vapes, as well as discrete and parent-proof packaging with no ID checks.
TikTok is being used by vape sellers marketing to teens pic.twitter.com/DOejvtafOb — DCW Marketing (@DCWMarketing) January 26, 2021
Vapes For Sale On TikTok
Using TikTok's search function, you can easily find dozens of videos featuring major brands of disposable vapes and e-cigarettes for sale. The videos, which are often accompanied by upbeat and popular music, clearly targets the teen market with offers of cartridge flavors like mint and fruit in disposable e-cigarettes. Vape sellers even promote their "parent-proof" packaging services to the teen market, where they say the vapes they send to customers are kept hidden using various types of stuffing or in some cases, tucked inside other products like fuzzy slippers or makeup bags.
Ever since the crackdown of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on the Juul brand, teen and young adults' interest in flavored, disposable vape grew to huge proportions. According to reports, due to the absence of the Juul brand, young adults and the teen market began turning to cheaper disposable vapes like the Puff Bar brand, which offer flavors like peach, bubblegum, strawberry, and many more. Vape sellers apparently took notice of this increased interest and found a way to sell them to the teen market using video-sharing platform TikTok as their medium.
All Over TikTok
Online news outlet TechCrunch reported that anyone can find vape brands with a variety of flavors on TikTok and that vape sellers are ready to ship them to anyone who finds a way to pay the vendors. To make matters worse, TikTok does not always take down such content when reported. TechCrunch reveals it found several vape sellers reaching out to their teen market on TikTok and using the video-sharing app to communicate with each other through both comments and videos.
The online news outlet also reports that vape sellers often direct their young viewers to what seems like illegally operating websites. The TikTok videos of the vape sellers typically display to their customers, including the teen market, their current vape inventory, which include disposables like the Puff Bar brand in teen-friendly flavor. When sought for comment, TikTok confirmed such activities happening on the video-sharing platform and that it is in violation of their policies, though the company did not elaborate on why the activities continue up to this point.
