The Yangpu District People's Procuratorate in Shanghai has urged Bilibili to rectify its dissemination of electronic cigarette information on its online platform.
Recently, the Yangpu District People's Procuratorate in Shanghai, during routine inspections, discovered that certain electronic cigarette-themed videos on the Bilibili platform may pose a risk of enticing minors to use electronic cigarettes during the process of being published and disseminated.
After rectification, all e-cigarette themed videos on the Bilibili platform now have significant warnings against underage use of e-cigarettes. Additionally, the platform has optimized its search system and correctly guides against underage consumption of e-cigarettes and pods when such keywords are searched.
User portrait of Bilibili.
Bilibili is a unique and scarce PUGC (Professional User Generated Content) video community and a leader in the PUGC video industry. Unlike short-form videos, PUGC video creation requires a higher level of skill and provides more robust content. According to statistics from Ping An Securities, in 2020, Bilibili had 2.2 million creators uploading 7.7 million videos, generating 6.6 billion interactions every month.
In October 2020, the Chairman of Bilibili, Chen Rui, stated at the 8th China Internet Audiovisual Conference, "Bilibili users are the youngest group among Chinese Internet users. From 2015 to 2020, the number of Bilibili users increased by 10 times. In the first quarter of 2020, the number of monthly active Bilibili users reached 172 million, of which 78% were young people aged between 18 and 35." It is estimated that more than 50% of young urban netizens and over 80% of middle and high school students and college students in first and second-tier cities are Bilibili users. These user groups have a strong willingness to pay.
Therefore, some e-cigarette retailers have targeted Bilibili, a platform with a large, young, and vibrant user base, for marketing. Bilibili is constantly featuring e-cigarette product reviews and new product promotions. Due to its search mechanism, it is currently impossible to determine the total number of e-cigarette-related videos posted on Bilibili, but it can be observed that approximately 50 such videos are uploaded daily.
The Bilibili platform utilizes the keyword search term "electronic cigarettes" to generate search results.
The Number of Chinese Adolescents Using E-Cigarettes
On May 29, 2022, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention released the "2021 Tobacco Use Among Middle and High School Students and College Students in China" monitoring report. The survey covered 136,296 middle school students, 132,954 high school students, and 124,119 college students from 31 provinces (regions, municipalities) across the country. According to the survey, electronic cigarettes are widely popular among young people.
In 2021, 86.6% of secondary school students have heard of e-cigarettes, with 16.1% having used them. 3.6% of secondary school students are currently using e-cigarettes. The most commonly used e-cigarette flavor among 63.8% of secondary school students is fruit flavor.
In 2021, 90.3% of college students have heard of e-cigarettes. The proportion of students who have used e-cigarettes is 10.1%, and the current usage rate is 2.5%, both higher than the results of the 2018 National Adult Tobacco Survey. The proportion of male students currently using e-cigarettes (3.9%) is higher than that of female students (1.1%), and students in vocational colleges (3.3%) have a higher usage rate than those in provincial and state-owned colleges (1.9%) and joint colleges (1.3%).
Screenshot of the official website of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
Reasons for Teenage Smoking Ban and Related Regulations.
On January 11, 2021, Dr. John Pierce, a Professor of Public Health at the University of California, San Diego, and his team published a study in Pediatrics on the relationship between teenage e-cigarette use and daily tobacco use, finding that e-cigarette use directly leads to future tobacco addiction among adolescents. Students who have only used e-cigarettes 1-2 times are 2.88 times more likely to smoke traditional cigarettes one year later compared to those who have never smoked. The study shows that underage nicotine exposure can have an impact on attention, learning, emotional fluctuations, and impulse control. Long-term use can also have adverse effects on brain development, resulting in learning disabilities, anxiety disorders, and other illnesses, severely impacting both physical and mental health.
This study is consistent with previous findings in the public health field: teenagers with strong curiosity are more prone to become dependent on nicotine without fully understanding the health risks, which may lead to becoming long-term smokers.
According to relevant provisions of the Law on the Protection of Minors, the Notice on Prohibiting the Sale of Electronic Cigarettes to Minors, and the Notice on Further Protecting Minors from Electronic Cigarette Harm, all types of market entities are prohibited from selling or promoting electronic cigarettes to minors. The media and other sectors of society should actively promote and guide the public to protect minors from the harm of electronic cigarettes.
On May 1, 2022, the "Regulations on Electronic Cigarette Management" were promulgated. According to Article 6, "The state and society should strengthen publicity and education on the harmful effects of electronic cigarettes, discourage adolescents from smoking electronic cigarettes, and prohibit primary and secondary school students from smoking electronic cigarettes." Article 18 states: “Special education schools, secondary vocational schools, special schools, and kindergartens cannot set up electronic cigarette product sales outlets around them.” Article 22 states: “It is prohibited to sell electronic cigarette products to minors. Electronic cigarette operators should set up signs in prominent locations indicating that they do not sell electronic cigarettes to minors. If it is difficult to determine whether the customer is a minor, they should be asked to show their identification documents.”
As the popularity of electronic cigarettes continues to rise, an increasing number of public health experts are calling on the government to intervene early to curb the trend of teenagers using e-cigarettes and potentially becoming addicted to tobacco.
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