Blocking access to online tobacco sales sites

The potential of the internet as a medium to encourage and discourage youth tobacco use

The internet is fast becoming a new battleground between tobacco control advocates and pro-tobacco forces, and this new media will certainly have a greater impact on tobacco use behaviour in the future. This paper reviews how the internet can encourage youth smoking by providing youth access to tobacco products and offering content that glamorises smoking lifestyle and culture, particularly in hundreds of websites and chat rooms. These sites feature pictures of celebrity smokers, provide information about smoking in movies, and provide smoking advice to teen smokers. In contrast, youth smoking is discouraged on online grassroots advocacy and countermarketing websites. Although these strategies show promise, more research is needed to evaluate their impact. Recommendations are made for future research to study pro-smoking internet content and ways to counteract it, as well as to monitor the online activities of the tobacco companies. Finally, some of the challenges in addressing tobacco related internet content are discussed.

Online sales: profit without question

OBJECTIVES

To examine the ease with which underage smokers can purchase cigarettes online using money orders and to evaluate the effectiveness of internet filtering programs in blocking access to internet cigarette vendors (ICVs).

DESIGN

Four young people purchased 32 money orders using 32 different names to buy one carton of cigarettes for each named individual. Each money order was subsequently mailed to a different ICV in the USA. No age related information accompanied these online orders. Two internet filtering programs ("Bess" and filtertobacco.org) were tested for their relative efficacy in blocking access to ICV sites.

RESULTS

Of the 32 orders placed, four orders never reached the intended ICV. Of the remaining 28 orders, 20 (71%) were filled despite a lack of age verification. Only four (14%) of the orders received were rejected because they lacked proof of age. "Bess" blocked access to 84% and filtertobacco.org to 94% of the ICV sites.

CONCLUSIONS

Although underage smokers can easily purchase cigarettes online using money orders, access to these sites can be largely blocked if appropriate filtering devices are installed.