Update (1/30/24): Following publication, it appears that TikTok has since removed the vape products referenced in this piece.

TikTok’s rapid expansion of its new e-commerce feature has come with a price for its young user base — their safety. TikTok Shop has quickly become the Wild West of unregulated and potentially dangerous products, and now merchants are selling black market vapes to children. 

Users must be at least 18 years old to access TikTok Shop, but TikTok has no age verification measures and underage users regularly lie about their age to circumvent content restrictions. New research commissioned by OfCom found that a third of children self-declare a false adult age when creating a social media account.

There’s a huge market for illegal vapes directed at underage consumers. A 2023 study found that 10 percent of high school students and 4.6 percent of middle school students reported using e-cigarettes, even though it is illegal for a retailer to sell any tobacco product to anyone under 21.

TikTok’s underground vape marketplace isn’t new. In 2021, a TechCrunch report found that sellers on TikTok were using the platform to market disposable vapes to teenagers and shipping the products in intentionally “parent-proof” packaging. Links published in the sellers’ bios or referenced in videos directed users off-platform to purchase the products. Now, in 2024, TikTok Shop’s poor moderation has enabled these black market disposable vape merchants to establish online storefronts on TikTok and sell users products directly on the app, no sketchy third-party website needed.

TikTok Shop merchants are advertising black market vape products to underage users, even though the sale of e-cigarettes and smoking equipment is explicitly prohibited by TikTok. Merchants are disguising vape products as innocuous items like “perfume kits” in an attempt to dodge TikTok’s rules. 

For example, Elf Bars (the most popular disposable e-cigarette product among teens) are listed on TikTok Shop as a “perfume kit” available in a variety of fruity flavors.

Vapes such as VAAL 1500, VAAL GLAZ 5000, and SKEWEZED 3K are similarly disguised as a “disposable perfume kit,” a “freshener” or a “diffuser.”

Assuming these vape products are made by a certified manufacturer (which is not guaranteed), the retailers selling products would still be violating the FDA’s retailer requirements for vape merchants, as there is no prompt to verify a customer’s photo ID in the TikTok Shop checkout portal, and because the products do not come with a health warning statement.

Intentionally mislabeling illegal vapes in order to avoid regulations is a technique regularly employed by e-cigarette merchants. In 2023, U.S. agents seized more than 1.4 million illegal e-cigarettes from overseas manufacturers and many of the containers were “deliberately mislabeled as toys, shoes, and other household items in order to evade customs.”

Other merchants are selling marijuana pens disguised as soldering tools. The indiscreet “Bada Bong” pen is being sold as a soldering tool when, in reality, it is a thread pen. The Doteco TIK10 thread battery, “designed for oil vape atomizers,” is also listed as a soldering iron tool.

Under a video selling a thread pen disguised as a soldering tool, after one user said, “you can get ‘em cheaper if you just go to a smoke shop,” another user replied, “This is targeted at people who are underage.”