Clearing the haze: novel methodology objectively assessing children’s online exposure to tobacco and vape marketing

Marketing of tobacco and vape products is effective at recruiting new users; yet, little is known about children's online exposure to such material. This research aimed to develop a methodology for assessing children's exposure to, and engagement with, online tobacco and vape marketing. This pilot study used data from the innovative Kids Online Aotearoa Study in which 156 11-13-year-olds from schools in the Wellington region of Aotearoa New Zealand used Zoom teleconferencing software to record real-time, screen-shared internet use for four consecutive days. We developed a coding framework to analyse the nature and extent of exposure to tobacco or vape marketing and applied it to a strategic subset of children's (n = 16) data. Twenty-one instances of tobacco or vape marketing were identified from 12 participants; four participants had no identified exposures. The findings show that children are exposed to such marketing online, despite legislation that should protect them; these insights improve understanding of the online marketing environment and may help to support global health promotion efforts in tobacco and nicotine control given the borderless nature of the online world. The Kids Online Aotearoa tobacco and vape marketing methodology and coding framework enables the direct assessment of children's exposure to online tobacco and vape marketing and is a valuable research tool to monitor and provide evidence to inform social and political action to protect children from online harm.