‘Mixed’ age-verification measures

The stringency of Internet age-verification measures varies across e-cigarette brands, according to a new study published March 7 in JAMA Pedriatics.

A team of researchers, led by Samir Soneji of Dartmouth College’s Geisel School of Medicine in Lebanon, New Hampshire, USA, reviewed the websites of 12 e-cigarette companies that held 98 percent of the retail market share in 2014 and 19 of their e-cigarette brands.

Of the site reviewed, two had no age-verification gates, five posting warnings, 10 required users to click/check that they were old enough to use the site, one required users to enter their birth date, and one required a detailed registration