Age restriction and warnings for minor viewing and health risk in heated tobacco product videos on YouTube

ABSTRACT

Background: Recently, the FDA authorized sales of another novel tobacco products – heated tobacco products (HTPs), electronic devices that heat tobacco and produce nicotine aerosols for inhalation, amid continuous increases of novel tobacco product usage among youth.

Objective: This research examines age restrictions and warnings on minor viewing or tobacco risk in popular HTP videos on YouTube in response to concerns on HTPs attracting youth and the dominance of pro-tobacco content on social media.

Method: Trained researchers coded the presence of age-restriction requested by the uploader, minor viewing warning (any statement/graphic warning minors’ access to the video in title, thumbnail, short description, the beginning of the video, and channel description) and health risk warning (any statement informing any health risk of tobacco use) in 66 HTP videos that have more than 10 K views. The association between such presence and video/creator features was assessed.

Results: There was a steady increase of popular HTP videos from 2014 to 2019. The 66 HTP videos generated 5.2 million views. Only three videos were age-restricted. Of the videos with no age-restriction, 38% showed actual use of HTPs. Six videos disclosed a warning on minor viewing. Four videos showed a warning on any type of tobacco risk, and only one of those contained specific information about the risks of HTPs. Videos by three types of pro-tobacco creators consisted of more than 80% and the total channel subscribers were more than 2.1 million.

Conclusions: The current analysis indicates a scarcity of creators’ voluntary age restriction and warnings to prevent minors’ access to HTP content on YouTube and a need to limit minors’ access to pro-tobacco content on social media.

KEYWORDS:

• Heated tobacco products
• IQOS
• YouTube
• youth
• age restriction

Disclosure statement

The authors read and approved the final manuscript and have no competing interests to declare.

Additional information

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.