JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

E-cigarettes are used by youth to conduct vape tricks (i.e., blowing large vapor clouds or shapes like rings). Vape tricks are promoted in social media but this is not well studied.

Objective:

This study focused on understanding the promotion of vape tricks to youth on YouTube.

Methods:

Videos on vape tricks that could be accessed by underage youth (without signing into an age-verified account) were identified. The videos were coded for number of views, “likes,” “dislikes,” and content (i.e., description of vape tricks, e-cigarette devices used for this purpose, video sponsors [private, industry], brand marketing, contextual characteristics [e.g., model characteristics, music, profanity]).

Results:

The search terms identified a total of 156,200 videos (M=14,200, SD=12,529). Analysis of 59 sample videos identified 25 distinct vape tricks. These videos had more “likes” than “dislikes” (11 to 1 ratio); the median view count was 32,017; 46% of the videos were posted by industry accounts (27% pro-vaping organizations, 15% online shops, 3% vape shops); 53% of the videos promoted a brand of e-cigarette devices/e-liquids or online/vape shops; and 99% of the devices used for vape tricks were advanced generation devices. The models in the videos were 80% male, 52% White, and 62% 18-24 years old. 86% of the videos had electronic dance music and hip hop and 32% had profanity.

Conclusions:

Vape trick videos on YouTube, about half of which were industry-sponsored, were accessible to youth. Youth-focused e-cigarette prevention efforts should include the regulation of vape trick videos on YouTube.