Senate hearing exposes loopholes in shopping apps selling vapes to minors

MANILA, Philippines – As online shopping apps become key channels for marketing e‑cigarettes or vapes to minors, government agencies and health experts are examining their regulations and pushing for stricter policies.

During the Senate health committee’s second hearing on e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products on Wednesday, May 6, they questioned how such harmful products are easily accessible to the youth.

Citing their 2023 Youth Tobacco Survey, Dr. Celia Flor Brilliantes of the Baguio City Health Office reported that 22% of their local students aged 13 to 15 have already tried vaping, and 12.5% currently use it.

Furthermore, 37% said that they can buy vapes easily regardless of existing regulations such as the Vaporized Nicotine and Non-Nicotine Products Regulation Act or Republic Act 11900.

Reading the statement of Baguio Mayor Benjamin Magalong, Brillantes said: “Our children are still vaping – in school toilets, in stairwells, from vapes ordered online – and no local ordinance can stop a legal product sold through a national, digital marketplace.”

Current platform policies

Attending for the first time, representatives of Shopee, Lazada, Facebook, and TikTok detailed how their current regulations protect minors from accessing vapes.

Shopee implements a Know Your Customer (KYC) verification process upon sign-up, where they require users to present a valid government ID and undergo facial verification.

“Users who have not completed each verification, [and] whose verified age identifies them as minors, cannot view vape-related listings,” Shopee Philippines public affairs officer Jaimmie Hans-Segovia said.

Vape listings also do not appear in general search results, as they “should not be passively accessible to general users, particularly minors.”

In Lazada, this message appears when searching the keyword ‘vape’: “According to related laws and policies, the products you’re searching for cannot be sold on the platform.”

John Estiller, Lazada’s head of government affairs, said that all vape products currently seen on the app and website are either illicit or illegal.

Meta, through the Facebook Marketplace, also prohibits the sale of vape, tobacco, and other nicotine products. They also block related keyword searches and listings.

“We also prohibit all advertising that promotes the use or sale of vape and tobacco products, and we restrict the visibility of tobacco-related content,” said Facebook Philippines’ public policy head Geo Tingson.

TikTok Shop enforces similar regulations while combing through all vape-related information that passes through the whole platform – be it through contacts, sharing links, location, or directing people off of TikTok. The platform also prohibits minors from signing up.

“In the Philippines, from December 20, 2025, we proactively removed 99.6% of videos violating our alcohol, tobacco, and drugs policies,” said Yves Gonzalez, TikTok Philippines’ head of public policy.

Sellers outmaneuvering policies

However, the platform representatives admit that many sellers still try to outmaneuver their systems by disguising vapes as other products through product names and photos.

Estiller said, “So for example in the product page, this normally won’t be like the pictures of vapes. These will be different products. It can be like T-shirts, and then there will be certain keywords that will appear there.”

“We acknowledge that bad actors continue to test safeguards across all online platforms, often by mispresenting products or disguising listings,” Shopee’s Hans-Segovia said.

Loose policies for users

Aside from sellers, platform users can also find ways to buy vapes if they want to.

Senator and committee chair Risa Hontiveros expressed concern that age-verification methods – such as the simple “I am 18” checkbox used in some apps – can offer little to no real security.

“Ang problema lang po ay ina-assume na hindi siya below 18, pero ang pinoproblema natin ay baka hindi talaga gumagana yung safeguards na matiyak na yung ‘I am 18’ ay factual,” she noted.

(The problem is that it is assumed a user is not below 18, but the concern is that the safeguards ensuring the ‘I am 18’ is factual may not actually work.)

For example, simply changing your birth year upon sign-up in some platforms can easily grant you access, and the system will not be aware of it.

Dominic Maddumba, director at the Department of Health, mentioned that they tried making a fake account on one of the platforms 30 minutes before the hearing and successfully purchased a vape product.

The age verification was self-declared, and they searched for similar keywords to vape such as “v ape” and “v@pe” until they found the vape listings.

“Even though there are regulations and restrictions on online sales, if hindi nakakasabay sa pace natin (if platforms can’t keep up with our pace), I think the most logical thing to do is to simplify enforcement and regulation to totally banning it,” Maddumba said.

While there is still debate on the best policy for vapes, the DOH, along with the Food and Drug Administration and other civil society groups, are calling for a total vape ban in the Philippines.

The committee is set to hold another technical working group to finalize its report on the matter. – Rappler.com