In India, Agamroop Kaur, a youth ambassador for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, is educating schoolchildren about the dangers of tobacco and vaping, specifically highlighting social media marketing tactics. She has observed vapes being marketed as “wellness” products.
“I think educating youth on what an advertisement looks like, why it’s false, how you might not even see that it’s from the tobacco industry and it’s [content posted by an] influencer is really powerful because then that builds a skill – so that when they’re on social media, because they are digital natives, they’re able to see all of that and know that it’s fake and it’s not something they should be attracted by. I think building those skills early from high school to middle school, and even younger, is really vital,” Kaur stated.
The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control mandates that signatory countries implement bans on tobacco advertising, promotion, and sponsorship.In the previous year, signatories acknowledged the necessity of addressing the escalating focus on “digital marketing channels such as social media, which increases adolescent and young people’s exposure to tobacco marketing.”
However, Andrew Black from the framework’s secretariat noted the complexity of the issue. “the challenge of regulating the internet is not a problem that’s unique to tobacco. It’s a real challenge for governments to think about how they can provide the protections that society is used to in a world where borders are broken down because of these technologies.”
Nandita murukutla, who oversees Canary, advised regulators to be vigilant. “What starts out small and you ignore, rises up to a certain point when you’ve got critical mass, and after that, it just explodes, and dialling something back is virtually impossible.”
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