Changes in Viewer Engagement and Accessibility of Popular Vaping Videos on TikTok: A 12-Month Prospective Study

Brienna N. Rutherford, Tianze Sun, Carmen C. W. Lim, Jack Chung, Brandon Cheng, Lily Davidson, Calvert Tisdale, Janni Leung, Daniel Stjepanović, Jason P. Connor and Gary C. K. Chan
Additional contact information
Brienna N. Rutherford: National Centre for Youth Substance Use Research, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia 4067, Australia
Tianze Sun: National Centre for Youth Substance Use Research, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia 4067, Australia
Carmen C. W. Lim: National Centre for Youth Substance Use Research, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia 4067, Australia
Jack Chung: National Centre for Youth Substance Use Research, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia 4067, Australia
Brandon Cheng: National Centre for Youth Substance Use Research, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia 4067, Australia
Lily Davidson: School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia 4067, Australia
Calvert Tisdale: School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia 4067, Australia
Janni Leung: National Centre for Youth Substance Use Research, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia 4067, Australia
Daniel Stjepanović: National Centre for Youth Substance Use Research, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia 4067, Australia
Jason P. Connor: National Centre for Youth Substance Use Research, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia 4067, Australia
Gary C. K. Chan: National Centre for Youth Substance Use Research, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia 4067, Australia

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 3, 1-9

Abstract: Aim: There are concerns regarding what young people are exposed to on TikTok due to trending content promoting e-cigarette use through humour, marketing and lifestyle acceptability. Using baseline data from November 2020, we aimed to examine how much content from a sample of popular vaping videos remained accessible at 9- and 12-month follow-ups. We aimed to monitor changes in viewer engagement (using metadata) before and after the U.S. Congressional Hearing on youth protection measures on social media in October 2021. Methods: Hashtag-based keywords were used to collect the most viewed publicly available e-cigarette related videos on TikTok (N = 802) from inception to November 2020 to form a baseline. Researchers conducted a longitudinal descriptive study using this data, with 9- and 12-month follow-ups to measure changes in viewer engagement (using metadata) and content availability. Findings: Of the 802 videos from the baseline, 562 remained at the 9-month follow-up and 511 remained at the 12-month follow-up. At the 12-month follow-up, the majority of vaping-related hashtags were removed by TikTok after the Congressional Hearing. Between the baseline and 9-month follow up, views increased by 1.4% and likes increased by 4.4%. At 12-month follow-up, views had increased by 1.7% and likes by 4.2% compared to baseline data. Whilst 291 videos were no longer publicly accessible at 12-month follow-up, 39 of these were made inaccessible by the content creators. The most viewed and most liked vaping videos at baseline were still publicly available. Conclusions: Whilst the depiction type and thematic distribution of removed videos suggest that TikTok may be removing a small proportion of content that promotes the use of e-cigarettes, metadata of remaining videos indicate an increase in viewer engagement. TikTok’s removal of explicit substance-related hashtags from the platform could be a step towards preventing adolescents from being exposed to harmful behaviours and substances online. However, the platform should consider enforcing effective age restrictions on content that promotes substance use in a positive light.

Keywords: e-cigarettes; vaping; TikTok; social media (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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