Sneaking Online for a Smoke
Dec. 12, 2001 -- With all the laws requiring proof of age to buy tobacco products, you might think it's difficult for your teen to obtain cigarettes, right?
Think again. If he or she has access to the Internet, it's not that hard.
Two new studies report it could be getting easier for kids to purchase cigarettes over the Internet. Cigarette web vendors are common in the U.S., and some teens already are using them.
Kurt M. Ribisl, PhD, and colleagues asked more than 17,000 10th and 12th grade students in California about smoking and their use of the Internet to purchase cigarettes.
Among the teens who smoked, more than 2% said they had tried to buy cigarettes on the Internet. Although still uncommon, Internet tobacco sales continue to increase, and the researchers add that more vendors may soon be selling to minors.
"Adolescents may turn to the Internet as an alternative source of cigarettes if they are unsuccessful in obtaining them from friends or retail stores," Ribisl writes.
According to the researchers, here's the tip-off that suggests there could soon be a problem on a larger scale: An 18-year-old can find people selling cigarettes on the Internet and order some, using a money order he or she can get in a convenience store. The cigarettes are bought and delivered without anyone having to provide proof of age.
Now if that technique would work for someone aged 18, why wouldn't it work for teens who are several years younger, since they are not required to provide photo ID for the online purchase?
It might seem like federal regulations would prevent Internet vendors from selling cigarettes to minors. The second study points out, however, that many vendors may be exempt from these laws.
In the second study, Ribisl and colleagues found 88 different Internet cigarette vendors in 23 states. Only 28% featured the U.S. Surgeon General's health warning about cigarettes and nearly 20% didn't display minimum-age-of-sale warnings.
Both studies appear in the most recent issue of Tobacco Control.
But understanding how to regulate these sales gets complicated. More than half of the tobacco-selling sites found in the study were operated by businesses on Indian reservations, where regulations often are up to interpretation.
Members of the Seneca Nation tribe claim that their 1842 treaty with the U.S. frees them from external government controls and that state laws do not apply to them, according to the researchers. But the New York attorney general's office says that it has jurisdiction over the sale of cigarettes being sold to someone outside the reservation.
Sneaking Online for a Smoke
Dec. 12, 2001 -- With all the laws requiring proof of age to buy tobacco products, you might think it's difficult for your teen to obtain cigarettes, right?
Think again. If he or she has access to the Internet, it's not that hard.
Two new studies report it could be getting easier for kids to purchase cigarettes over the Internet. Cigarette web vendors are common in the U.S., and some teens already are using them.
Kurt M. Ribisl, PhD, and colleagues asked more than 17,000 10th and 12th grade students in California about smoking and their use of the Internet to purchase cigarettes.
Among the teens who smoked, more than 2% said they had tried to buy cigarettes on the Internet. Although still uncommon, Internet tobacco sales continue to increase, and the researchers add that more vendors may soon be selling to minors.
"Adolescents may turn to the Internet as an alternative source of cigarettes if they are unsuccessful in obtaining them from friends or retail stores," Ribisl writes.
According to the researchers, here's the tip-off that suggests there could soon be a problem on a larger scale: An 18-year-old can find people selling cigarettes on the Internet and order some, using a money order he or she can get in a convenience store. The cigarettes are bought and delivered without anyone having to provide proof of age.
Now if that technique would work for someone aged 18, why wouldn't it work for teens who are several years younger, since they are not required to provide photo ID for the online purchase?
It might seem like federal regulations would prevent Internet vendors from selling cigarettes to minors. The second study points out, however, that many vendors may be exempt from these laws.
In the second study, Ribisl and colleagues found 88 different Internet cigarette vendors in 23 states. Only 28% featured the U.S. Surgeon General's health warning about cigarettes and nearly 20% didn't display minimum-age-of-sale warnings.
Both studies appear in the most recent issue of Tobacco Control.
But understanding how to regulate these sales gets complicated. More than half of the tobacco-selling sites found in the study were operated by businesses on Indian reservations, where regulations often are up to interpretation.
Members of the Seneca Nation tribe claim that their 1842 treaty with the U.S. frees them from external government controls and that state laws do not apply to them, according to the researchers. But the New York attorney general's office says that it has jurisdiction over the sale of cigarettes being sold to someone outside the reservation.