Teens Learn About Vaping Through Friends and Social Media, Especially Instagram and Snapchat

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 4, 2019 — A new poll by Common Sense and SurveyMonkey found that nearly eight in 10 teens (78%) say vaping is popular among their peers and is a part of their daily experience, in real life, in schools, and on social media. One third (33%) say they see classmates vaping in school a few times a week or more. More than half (54%) say they see vaping at school at least monthly.

Most teens (44%) first learned about vaping from someone they know, but as prevalent as vaping is in real life, that popularity carries over to the online world, where teens typically spend a lot of time. Nearly a quarter (23%) first heard about vaping on social media as it infiltrated their feeds. A majority of teens (59%), especially those on Instagram and Snapchat, say they are likely to see a social media post that mentions or shows vaping.

"As these results show, vaping is everywhere kids are, whether it is online, at home, or at school, and now, because of the woeful lack of regulatory oversight by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, it has become a national health epidemic," said James P. Steyer, CEO and founder of Common Sense. "While we certainly need tough government action to protect kids from Big Tobacco, we need more than that. Parents, educators, media, and public officials at all levels of government need to work together to raise awareness and protect kids from mysterious vaping illnesses and the scourge of nicotine addiction."

There is some good news in the survey. Likely as a result of the recent spike in media coverage on the dangers of vaping, most teens understand vaping is as harmful as smoking cigarettes, despite tobacco industry claims that vaping is healthier. More often than not, the messages teens are now seeing online are against vaping rather than promoting or glorifying it. More than twice as many teens say they've learned about "risks or harms associated with vaping" as those who say they've heard that "vaping is healthier than smoking cigarettes" (72% vs. 34%).

“Understanding teenagers’ opinions on issues that are critical to their health can help us anticipate—and in some cases avoid—health crises in the future,” said Jon Cohen, chief research officer at SurveyMonkey. “In our study, 43% of teens who say vaping is less harmful than smoking have seen messages online to that effect, highlighting the key role social media and online advertising play in shaping public attitudes among young people. If we want teens to make healthful choices based on the latest information, engaging media and social media companies as part of the solution is a logical first step.”

Selected key findings

This poll comes on the heels of the launch of the public education and advocacy campaign by Common Sense on the dangers of Big Tobacco and e-cigarettes. Most recently, Common Sense called on media leaders to refuse advertising by Juul and e-cigarette companies and urged the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to ban flavored cigarettes. As part of its work with educators across the country, Common Sense created a lesson plan for teachers called "How to Use the Vaping and Juuling Trend to Teach Media Literacy" to help teens better understand persuasive tricks and deeper meanings of advertisements and commercials.

This poll is part of the Common Sense partnership with SurveyMonkey to examine media and technology trends affecting kids and their parents and to share actionable data and insights with families.

Methodology:
This SurveyMonkey Audience survey was conducted September 23 to October 4, 2019, among 1,062 teenagers age 13 to 17 in the United States. Respondents for this survey were selected from more than 2 million people who take surveys on the SurveyMonkey platform each day. The modeled-error estimate for the full sample is plus or minus 3.5 percentage points. Data have been weighted for age and sex using the Census Bureau's American Community Survey to reflect the demographic composition of the United States age 13 to 17. Full results are available here.

About Common Sense
Common Sense is the nation's leading nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the lives of kids and families by providing the trustworthy information, education, and independent voice they need to thrive in the 21st century. Learn more at commonsense.org.

About SurveyMonkey
SurveyMonkey is a leading global survey software company on a mission to power the curious. The company's People Powered Data platform empowers over 17 million active users to measure and understand feedback from employees, customers, website and app users, and the market. SurveyMonkey's products, enterprise solutions, and integrations enable more than 335,000 organizations to solve daily challenges, from delivering better customer experiences to increasing employee retention. With SurveyMonkey, organizations around the world can transform feedback into business intelligence that drives growth and innovation.

Contacts
Tanya Schevitz
Common Sense
tschevitz@commonsense.org
(415) 298-5532

Katie Miserany
SurveyMonkey
katiem@surveymonkey.com

Cassandra Matter
Common Sense
cmatter@commonsense.org
(408) 960-5115

*Spanish-language speakers available for interviews upon request. Contact Viviana Reveron at vreveron@commonsense.org.