March 4, 2015
Teens find buying e-cigs is super easy online
A new study published in JAMA (The Journal of the American Medical Association) Pediatrics found that it is almost laughably easy for minors to buy electronic cigarettes online.
The University of North Carolina Internet Tobacco Vendors Study asked 11 teens between the ages of 14 and 17 to go online and attempt to purchase e-cigs from 98 vendors. Seventy-five of the 98 vendors filled orders placed by the kids.
The study concluded that minors were able to place and receive orders because of insufficient age verification measures by the online sites. There was also no attempt to verify age by delivery companies, with 95 percent of orders being left at the door. Even in the cases where teens answered the door, none of the shipping companies verified age before dropping off the package.
E-cigs were first introduced in the U.S. market in 2007 and grew into a $2 billion market by 2013. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the percentage of American teens who tried e-cigs grew from 4.7 percent in 2011 to 10 percent a year later. The number of middle and high school kids who used e-cigs reached 1.78 million in 2012.
The UNC study found that the only verification process that stopped kids from buying e-cigs online was a requirement for the purchaser to include a legitimate social security number and birth date. Unfortunately, the security risks associated with providing this information does not make it a viable alternative going forward. In its final conclusion, the study’s authors recommended that federal law should require e-cigs to operate as tobacco products do under the PACT (Prevent All Cigarette Trafficking) Act, which require age verification to process online sales.
"Implementing the use of age verification software is a reasonable, highly effective and cost-efficient way for the vapor products industry to prevent minors from making unauthorized purchases online," Phil Daman, president of the Smoke-Free Alternatives Trade Association, told USA Today.
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Discussion Questions
Are you concerned about the apparent ease with which teens are able to buy e-cigarettes online? What can online retailers do to make it more difficult?
Poll
Reading about the ease of teens buying e-cigarettes online makes me concerned about what else can easily be purchased.
I am concerned about easy access to e-cigarettes, mostly because it supports a positive image of cigarette smoking that got me started as a teenager. Fortunately I quit when I was a young adult, but I wish the allure was not there at all.
I’ll let others debate the medical risk associated with e-cigarettes. However, I don’t know of any upsides among teenagers.
Online makes it easy for kids to buy damn near anything they want, and the cat is out of the bag. Good parenting is first and foremost the key, as being a passive parent these days is not good. When I was a teenager, you could buy alcohol with a horrible fake ID and the store owners looked the other way, so kids are clever about getting what they want, and with technology, it is easier than ever. I know some parents who caught their kids buying wine online and having it shipped to their friend’s house, which again is a whole other issue to be dealt with. It is the wild west online, and putting the genie back in the bottle will require more stringent government oversight, which we all love!
Yes, I am very concerned. I am not sure online retailers can or would do anything at this point. I do think it is up to the states to control. Much like online wine sales, many states do not permit the delivery of wine in their state. The same could be enacted for e-cigs. It is not fair to put the burden onto the delivery companies, so again it is a state issue just as the sale and taxation of real cigarettes are controlled by the state.
Another approach would be to have the delivery drivers verify a driver’s license when they delivered, or since most use hand-held devices take a picture of the driver’s license or the individual signing for the package. E-cigs must be delivered as “signature required,” no exceptions, and the USPS should not accept them for delivery at all.
Lastly, if the retailers are truly concerned, they could discontinue selling the devices online and sell only in stores where age would be verified. Maybe they are made available only at c-stores and give that segment a new vice category to sell.
Most brick-and-mortar retailers have procedures in place for e-cigs that mirror those they utilize for cigarettes and other age-restricted items. This limits the likelihood of underage customers purchasing e-cigs.
A large part of the issue is that there are so many manufacturers, many of which could be at best described as fly-by-night. These companies have no retail presence and no government oversight.
Several of these companies’ pages that I quickly visited don’t even ask for age verification to enter the site (as shown in the article). Asking for someone’s social and birth date carries too great a risk to any buyer. There is no guarantee that the site will safeguard that information properly, etc.
UPS and FedEx drivers have long routes and little time to cover them. I don’t foresee them becoming the age police anytime soon.
Frankly, I look forward to reading how others might suggest this be handled.
E-cigs should be regulated as strictly as regular cigarettes, and their use should be greatly discouraged. Retailers should be held accountable and the government should do everything possible to discourage smoking and make cigarettes as difficult as possible to obtain.
The last thing we need is more laws, taxes and fines making retailers solely responsible as the new 21st century e-police. If the government wishes to impose rules and regulations as a payoff to those that funded their election campaigns they should not be allowed to place the bulk of the work on businesses or anyone else for that matter.
I guess my question is, how do they pay for this? Are they using a debit card their parents gave them? It’s not cash, so somewhere there ought to be some kind of check on the purchase just because of the payment method required (and I mean parental ownership and responsibility for preventing the purchase).
But I have purchased wine online many times. And I have also missed the delivery where age verification and a signature are required in order to receive my wine, which always turns into a huge pain. Why is it that we can make that work for alcohol but we can’t make it work for tobacco? Seems like it would be pretty easy to use an existing process.
But what it comes down to is, kids will get it if they want it. They’ve been finding a way since cigarette vending machines were first banned. But it seems silly to me that this is an issue when we already have well-established processes in other areas (like alcohol) that could easily be leveraged. Why does it have to be so hard?
E-cigs are only part of the problem. Kids, especially teens, have access to way too much on the internet that they are not ready for yet. How to halt this? Technology can help, but it is critical that retailers or vendors fund a program that helps get the message through to parents. many parents lack the knowledge or awareness of what their kids can do online.
Many kids in today’s world—via TV, online access to videos, a parental ignorance towards video media ratings (from games to movies)—are growing up too fast. They are over-exposed to the elements of life that can cause them life altering consequences: Incarceration, sex, booze, nicotine, non-education and rock and roll or rap (ear damage).
So how can this be stopped? That is the real question that needs to be answered. E-cigs are one element of a huge problem and the first step in solving this mess is to target many parents to become more responsible and teach their kids self-pride and self-discipline vs. meeting the demands of peer pressure.
I have lived through this. I saw one of my kids go “south” on alcohol and drugs and another become a game addict beyond belief. Fortunately, after many tough years and clinics they are both mature young adults who still wonder why they messed up so many years of their lives. Some of their friends from those days did not make the turn “north” back to the real world. I could have changed this as a parent, but I let it slide. It is parents JOB to step in and cut the chaos of today and battle the social pressures that kids suffer.
Help a parent you know to do this. As a retailer, make it tougher for kids to do stupid things and as a vendor—do the same.
Somehow we can alter kids’ minds better than their peers can!
Yes, I am concerned. E-tailers should not be selling vape products online or should only sell to those with a credit card in their name.
It is not just e-cigarettes that can purchased online, it is everything. The problem is, most of the laws limiting sales are at the state, not national level. This means an internet site in another state will simply bypass restrictions on sales.
No one in their right mind is going to give their social security number over the internet to purchase anything, so that is not the answer. To solve this problem is going to require the credit and debit card companies to include a code to limit or prohibit sales of restricted items.
But eliminating online access of vape products to teens would squash the future retail entrepreneurs who are buying up the product online and then selling them throughout the high school!
Kidding aside, this is a real issue that occurs every day as a new crop of bulletproof teenagers test their limits. It’s compounded by imperfect information (and even health halo!) regarding the health hazards of e-cigs that teens latch onto.
Perhaps one solution to this “e-cig dealing” issue is to limit the volume and frequency of orders like they do with some OTC medications that can be abused or processed for abuse.
No, I’m not concerned about the ease with which teens are able to buy e-cigs on line. It’s neither easier or more difficult than it is to put a $10 bill on the counter for a $5 six pack of beer and walk out from many retailers with alcohol.
There is no standard, and no legitimate research showing that other than providing nicotine, that they are harmful or any more harmful than the “speed” drinks they buy every single day without hesitation or concern of few.
Until there is a respected and legitimate standard, parents, teachers, loved ones, and mentors need to take more responsibility in guidance on what teens are or are not buying. That is where the responsibility lies. That’s where it should be. Yet we stand back and wait until the “nanny” in Washington does what caring adults with good sense should do themselves.
I am more concerned about what they can buy at school and other teen venues. Kids will get what they want to get—and good luck stopping them. However, this is an illegal transaction and the companies allowing this to happen better get on top of it, or they will, and should, be shut down.
There are other concerns I have in this area.
Young (and maybe) older adults are also using e-cigs like we used Vivarin in college—as a road-trip stimulant up and down I81. This was brought to my attention by my son who informed me that we need to do a red-bull/ehookah stop. Unfortunately, that nasty addictive side of nicotine hasn’t been eliminated.
The other vaping issue—THC oils, coming soon to a community near you. No officer, I am just smoking an e-cig, please let me hop in my car and drive home.
That being said, if a parent knows this is happening in their house, it is their ultimate responsibility. However, think back to when you were a kid—wasn’t there always “one house” where the rules didn’t apply?
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Reading about the ease of teens buying e-cigarettes online makes me concerned about what else can easily be purchased.
I am concerned about easy access to e-cigarettes, mostly because it supports a positive image of cigarette smoking that got me started as a teenager. Fortunately I quit when I was a young adult, but I wish the allure was not there at all.
I’ll let others debate the medical risk associated with e-cigarettes. However, I don’t know of any upsides among teenagers.
Online makes it easy for kids to buy damn near anything they want, and the cat is out of the bag. Good parenting is first and foremost the key, as being a passive parent these days is not good. When I was a teenager, you could buy alcohol with a horrible fake ID and the store owners looked the other way, so kids are clever about getting what they want, and with technology, it is easier than ever. I know some parents who caught their kids buying wine online and having it shipped to their friend’s house, which again is a whole other issue to be dealt with. It is the wild west online, and putting the genie back in the bottle will require more stringent government oversight, which we all love!
Yes, I am very concerned. I am not sure online retailers can or would do anything at this point. I do think it is up to the states to control. Much like online wine sales, many states do not permit the delivery of wine in their state. The same could be enacted for e-cigs. It is not fair to put the burden onto the delivery companies, so again it is a state issue just as the sale and taxation of real cigarettes are controlled by the state.
Another approach would be to have the delivery drivers verify a driver’s license when they delivered, or since most use hand-held devices take a picture of the driver’s license or the individual signing for the package. E-cigs must be delivered as “signature required,” no exceptions, and the USPS should not accept them for delivery at all.
Lastly, if the retailers are truly concerned, they could discontinue selling the devices online and sell only in stores where age would be verified. Maybe they are made available only at c-stores and give that segment a new vice category to sell.
Most brick-and-mortar retailers have procedures in place for e-cigs that mirror those they utilize for cigarettes and other age-restricted items. This limits the likelihood of underage customers purchasing e-cigs.
A large part of the issue is that there are so many manufacturers, many of which could be at best described as fly-by-night. These companies have no retail presence and no government oversight.
Several of these companies’ pages that I quickly visited don’t even ask for age verification to enter the site (as shown in the article). Asking for someone’s social and birth date carries too great a risk to any buyer. There is no guarantee that the site will safeguard that information properly, etc.
UPS and FedEx drivers have long routes and little time to cover them. I don’t foresee them becoming the age police anytime soon.
Frankly, I look forward to reading how others might suggest this be handled.
E-cigs should be regulated as strictly as regular cigarettes, and their use should be greatly discouraged. Retailers should be held accountable and the government should do everything possible to discourage smoking and make cigarettes as difficult as possible to obtain.
The last thing we need is more laws, taxes and fines making retailers solely responsible as the new 21st century e-police. If the government wishes to impose rules and regulations as a payoff to those that funded their election campaigns they should not be allowed to place the bulk of the work on businesses or anyone else for that matter.
I guess my question is, how do they pay for this? Are they using a debit card their parents gave them? It’s not cash, so somewhere there ought to be some kind of check on the purchase just because of the payment method required (and I mean parental ownership and responsibility for preventing the purchase).
But I have purchased wine online many times. And I have also missed the delivery where age verification and a signature are required in order to receive my wine, which always turns into a huge pain. Why is it that we can make that work for alcohol but we can’t make it work for tobacco? Seems like it would be pretty easy to use an existing process.
But what it comes down to is, kids will get it if they want it. They’ve been finding a way since cigarette vending machines were first banned. But it seems silly to me that this is an issue when we already have well-established processes in other areas (like alcohol) that could easily be leveraged. Why does it have to be so hard?
E-cigs are only part of the problem. Kids, especially teens, have access to way too much on the internet that they are not ready for yet. How to halt this? Technology can help, but it is critical that retailers or vendors fund a program that helps get the message through to parents. many parents lack the knowledge or awareness of what their kids can do online.
Many kids in today’s world—via TV, online access to videos, a parental ignorance towards video media ratings (from games to movies)—are growing up too fast. They are over-exposed to the elements of life that can cause them life altering consequences: Incarceration, sex, booze, nicotine, non-education and rock and roll or rap (ear damage).
So how can this be stopped? That is the real question that needs to be answered. E-cigs are one element of a huge problem and the first step in solving this mess is to target many parents to become more responsible and teach their kids self-pride and self-discipline vs. meeting the demands of peer pressure.
I have lived through this. I saw one of my kids go “south” on alcohol and drugs and another become a game addict beyond belief. Fortunately, after many tough years and clinics they are both mature young adults who still wonder why they messed up so many years of their lives. Some of their friends from those days did not make the turn “north” back to the real world. I could have changed this as a parent, but I let it slide. It is parents JOB to step in and cut the chaos of today and battle the social pressures that kids suffer.
Help a parent you know to do this. As a retailer, make it tougher for kids to do stupid things and as a vendor—do the same.
Somehow we can alter kids’ minds better than their peers can!
Yes, I am concerned. E-tailers should not be selling vape products online or should only sell to those with a credit card in their name.
It is not just e-cigarettes that can purchased online, it is everything. The problem is, most of the laws limiting sales are at the state, not national level. This means an internet site in another state will simply bypass restrictions on sales.
No one in their right mind is going to give their social security number over the internet to purchase anything, so that is not the answer. To solve this problem is going to require the credit and debit card companies to include a code to limit or prohibit sales of restricted items.
But eliminating online access of vape products to teens would squash the future retail entrepreneurs who are buying up the product online and then selling them throughout the high school!
Kidding aside, this is a real issue that occurs every day as a new crop of bulletproof teenagers test their limits. It’s compounded by imperfect information (and even health halo!) regarding the health hazards of e-cigs that teens latch onto.
Perhaps one solution to this “e-cig dealing” issue is to limit the volume and frequency of orders like they do with some OTC medications that can be abused or processed for abuse.
No, I’m not concerned about the ease with which teens are able to buy e-cigs on line. It’s neither easier or more difficult than it is to put a $10 bill on the counter for a $5 six pack of beer and walk out from many retailers with alcohol.
There is no standard, and no legitimate research showing that other than providing nicotine, that they are harmful or any more harmful than the “speed” drinks they buy every single day without hesitation or concern of few.
Until there is a respected and legitimate standard, parents, teachers, loved ones, and mentors need to take more responsibility in guidance on what teens are or are not buying. That is where the responsibility lies. That’s where it should be. Yet we stand back and wait until the “nanny” in Washington does what caring adults with good sense should do themselves.
I am more concerned about what they can buy at school and other teen venues. Kids will get what they want to get—and good luck stopping them. However, this is an illegal transaction and the companies allowing this to happen better get on top of it, or they will, and should, be shut down.
There are other concerns I have in this area.
Young (and maybe) older adults are also using e-cigs like we used Vivarin in college—as a road-trip stimulant up and down I81. This was brought to my attention by my son who informed me that we need to do a red-bull/ehookah stop. Unfortunately, that nasty addictive side of nicotine hasn’t been eliminated.
The other vaping issue—THC oils, coming soon to a community near you. No officer, I am just smoking an e-cig, please let me hop in my car and drive home.
That being said, if a parent knows this is happening in their house, it is their ultimate responsibility. However, think back to when you were a kid—wasn’t there always “one house” where the rules didn’t apply?