Doctors warn of ‘dangerous’ social media trend harming the health of kids as young as 12

The kids are not all right.

While many things have changed over this years, one constant that has remained is parents needing to keep an eye on the friendship group of their impressionable teens.

Of course, doing so is arguably more difficult than ever thanks to the rise of social media.

New research out of Australia has found that teens are increasingly exposed to peer pressure and social media hype around vaping — thanks in part to the insidious nature of online trends.

A study published in the journal Nicotine and Tobacco Research found that young people who had friends who vaped were a shocking 15 times more likely to pick up the habit themselves.

“We analyzed data from 20,800 American youth between 2015 and 2021 and found that while the proportion of friends who smoked declined, having friends who vaped remained concerningly common,” Giang Vu, a PhD candidate at the University of Queensland, said in a press release.

“In 2015, 31.6% of young people had friends who vaped, and while this decreased to 22.3% by 2021, this figure is still high.”

Much of this decline is likely due to an increase in public disapproval of vaping — which spiked from 55.4% to 77.5% between 2015 and 2020 — following a spate of vaping-related illness and deaths.

However, researchers are sounding the alarm over the role that digital content plays in the glamorization of this dangerous habit.

“In many videos, vaping is portrayed as trendy and a healthier lifestyle choice when compared to cigarette smoking, but this is dangerous messaging,” study co-author Gary Chung Kai Chan said.

“We need more regulation on social media, along with targeted policies and campaigns to decrease vaping rates.”

The good news is that parental disapproval proved to be one of the strongest protective factors — decreasing the likelihood of vaping by about 70%.

But a companion piece published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine discovered another chilling trend: an uptick in the amount of teens vaping THC and CBD — both of which are compounds that are derived from the same plant as weed — along with lab-made synthetic cannabinoids.

Some of these adolescents are 12 — or younger — and rates were higher among girls than boys.

“We saw an increase in all products between 2021 and 2023, but it was concerning to see a rise in synthetic cannabinoids, where vaping doubled in young people aged between 11–15 years,” said Jack Chung, a PhD candidate at the National Center for Youth Substance Use Research of the University of Queensland.

“Synthetic cannabinoids are particularly dangerous as they can lead to unpredictable health consequences and even death.”

Even worse — many of them are wholly unaware of what they are putting into their bodies.

“It was also worrying to see more adolescents were unsure about the substances they were vaping—1.8% of teens in 2021 weren’t sure if they had vaped synthetic cannabinoids, increasing to 4.7% in 2023,” he said.

Experts are increasingly warning that vaping carries hidden dangers — including lung damage, cardiovascular issues, and exposure to toxic chemicals like acrolein.

Teens may be especially vulnerable because their brains and bodies are still developing, making them more susceptible to addiction and long-term health consequences.