The youth vaping crisis | What UK Vape Scene are doing

What UK Vape Scene is doing to combat youth vaping?

As we have all seen, vaping has been getting absolutely flogged by the media these past couple of years. These concerns all seem to stem from the very legitimate concern of children vaping at an ever increasing rate throughout the UK.

These valid fears have slowly morphed into an all-out smear campaign on vaping as a whole. Conveniently, news outlets and tabloids seem to ignore the truth that vaping is the leading harm-reduction tool for adult smokers, being 95% less harmful than smoking cigarettes.

This fearmongering can easily lead to fiercer legislation on vaping which will make it harder and harder for the public to have access to it.

Which begs the question; what would happen if vaping was banned entirely, and ex-smokers who rely on vaping where stripped of it?

I know a few big tobacco companies that would be pleased about that…

So we would like to take this opportunity to present the raw facts about the youth vaping “epidemic” and what we're doing to help curb the sudden influx of underage vaping.

The UK Vape Scene Age Verification System

We operate a robust age verification system utilising the ageverifyuk service. This system can validate a customer's age in the background, occasionally a valid form of ID will need to be sent for us to verify your age.

This proactive approach has been a massive success in preventing underage people from getting their hands on 18+ products.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for all vape companies who trade either online or in person. Far too many bad actors see the increase in youth vaping as a lucrative business opportunity rather than the nation-wide issue it is.

We can only assume by the number of fake ID's we are sent day-to-day how many kids are taking a chance at getting their hands on vapes.

The facts around the current youth vaping crisis

According to the stats, youth vaping in the UK has significantly increased in recent years. An NHS England survey from 2023 indicates that 9% of secondary school pupils (aged 11-15) are current vapers, up from 6% in 2018.

Additionally, 25% have tried vaping at least once. The ASH survey from 2024 reports a slightly lower current vaping rate of 7.2% among 11-17 year-olds, with 18% having tried vaping.

These figures suggest a concerning trend, especially given the still unknown long-term effects of vaping, especially among children.

Now let's put that data into perspective.

Before vaping took off, youth smoking rates in the UK were at 19% of 11-15 year-olds in 1990 and later dropped to 9% by 2010. A lot of effective campaigning was done between those years to make the public aware of the risks involved with smoking, which helped drop that rate significantly.

This goes to show two things. Firstly it appears that public health campaigns and legislation are an effective method to push people away from an unhealthy lifestyle, which could be used in a more targeted way to push kids away from vaping.

Secondly, no matter what we do as responsible adults, children will try to push boundaries and do what they're not supposed to do. Whether it be smoking, vaping or setting fires behind the bike shed, teenagers have a verve for rebellion (shocking, I know) so it's up to us responsible adults to keep them in check.

So what do we do about it?

Now that we have established the facts about vaping and smoking rates amongst the youth and their inevitable need for defiance, let's dive into what we can all do to keep our kids as safe as possible.

The first step in keeping underage people from vaping starts at home. The American Heart Association highlights that consistent reinforcement from parents, alongside public health campaigns, helps keep teens from starting. In homes with strict no-smoking policies, teens are up to 30% less likely to try cigarettes or e-cigarettes, according to CDC data on youth tobacco use.

Another key factor to consider as a parent is to not vape or smoke yourself. Studies suggest that kids from households where their parents don't smoke have a 25%-40% chance of never picking it up themselves.

The UK's Understanding Society Survey (2015-2017) also found that youths aged 10-15 whose parents vaped but didn't smoke still had a slightly higher risk of vaping or smoking, but the effect was weaker than if parents smoked traditional cigarettes.

Looking towards the future

We hope that this article served as an insight into the truth around youth vaping and what individuals and companies can do to ease this ever growing concern.

Here at UK Vape Scene, many of us are parents of teenagers ourselves, so we take this matter very seriously. We will continue to keep our age verification system as air-tight as possible, making sure our internal policies reflect our views on keeping kids away from vaping.