By Barnaby Page, ECigIntelligence
One of the biggest forces behind youth vaping around the world is social media marketing, according to public health researchers. But will restrictions on social media reduce that?
Questions around young people’s use of social media in general have come to the fore in the UK recently, and the government earlier this year launched a consultation on possible regulation, including rules on age-appropriate content or a minimum age for use of social media.
As Westminster investigates its options, much attention will be paid to Australia, which on 10th December 2025 introduced a world-first social media ban for under-16s in an effort to curb youth exposure to harmful content, including material about vaping. It does not technically prevent young people from accessing social media, but instead requires certain platforms to take reasonable steps to prevent children creating or holding accounts.
Although vaping was far from the only reason for Australia’s actions, the rationale for preventing youth exposure to online promotion is clear.
Jonine Jancey, a professor and researcher at Curtin University, told ECigIntelligence: “Research tells us that user-generated content and marketing related to vaping products on social media can increase positive attitudes to vapes and lower perceptions of harm, leading to the normalisation of e-cigarettes and increased use.”
The social media ban in Australia follows a ban on vape advertising dating back to April 2024, enacted because social media platforms had failed to self-regulate to restrict content promoting vaping. Instead, a Curtin University study found, they positively portrayed vaping and often violated their own policies.
For example:
- A 2021 experiment in Australia found that, contrary to Facebook’s advertising policy, mock ads containing e-cigarettes were approved for targeted advertisements for 13-to-17-year-old users. (Jancey could find similar examples, including on Meta, as recently as January 2026.)
- Another study found vaping brands bypassing marketing regulation loopholes to promote vape content.
- Some of the content in Australia was extreme – a study in 2023 by the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation (VicHealth) and stop-smoking/vaping campaign Quit Australia found that content shared by vape retailers had offered tips on how to hide vapes at school and at home.
Since the ad ban, there seem to be some signs of improvement in Australia. Exposure to vape advertising on social media has dropped, with the number of participants who had seen vape ads on TikTok halved since early 2024.
Whether the social media ban itself will have a significant effect is still open to question; it’s new, and there have been some reported challenges with enforcement. Some commentators also point out that restricting promotion is not enough in itself – availability of the products to young people at retail also needs to be effectively controlled.
Others believe that addressing digital literacy may be a better solution than simply pushing young people off mainstream social media. Said Brittany Ferdinands, a lecturer in digital content creation at the University of Sydney: “Preventing under-16s from having social media accounts won’t necessarily stop them from using them. In fact, it may push their activity underground. If governments want to protect young people, investment in digital literacy, media education and platform design changes will be arguably more effective than age bans that are easy to bypass.”
Here in the UK, we can expect many of these arguments to be debated as the government’s examination of social media regulation progresses. The climate for vape in Britain may be much more favourable than in Australia (where extremely tight regulation of nicotine generally has led to a huge illicit market), but marketing to youth via social media naturally has few supporters and eliminating it will be a positive step for the industry’s reputation.
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