Dr Gary Chan from UQ’s National Centre for Youth Substance Use Research spoke to News Corp about how YouTube videos showing cannabis vaping as fun, are widely available and easily accessible to young people.
YouTube is under pressure to slap age restrictions on cannabis vaping videos after a new study found a disturbing trend.
YouTube videos which depict cannabis vaping as “fun and joyful” are easily accessible to young people, a university study has found.
The study, conducted by University of Queensland, found 52 per cent of videos analysed had no age access restrictions as they showed risk-taking behaviour including vaping a whole cartridge of THC – the main psychoactive compound in cannabis.
Their research paper, Content analysis of cannabis vaping videos on YouTube, published in the global journal Addiction, looked at videos on YouTube between 2016 and 2020 under themes including advertisement, product review, celebratory, reflective, how-to, and warning.
Metrics around the number of views, likes, dislikes, and comments for each video were recorded.
Co-lead author Dr Gary Chan from UQ’s National Centre for Youth Substance Use Research told News Corp many videos had no age restrictions, meaning children and adolescents could access them.
