Purpose of the Research 

OnePoll partnered with Clarity Global to conduct research on behalf of IKE Tech. IKE Tech are a US-based tech company who deliver frictionless age-verification across multiple consumer product categories using a single, easy-to-use mobile app.

Their app safely secures and protects Bluetooth devices by adding a biometric verification step when you use the product. This prevents unauthorised use and helps deter theft. IKE Tech is calling on government to pave the way for tech solutions that will solve the problem of vape accessibility. The new technology makes it possible for each vape on sale in the UK market to include secure Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology, which acts as a ‘child lock’ to prevent under-18s from using vaping devices. Essentially, only vape users who can continuously prove they are over the age of 18 will be able to activate and use the devices. 

The purpose of the research was to find out views of adults and teenagers surrounding young people vaping. This included how effective certain measures would be in stopping vaping such as laws and biometric verification, the vaping trends among young users and what influences young people to vape. 

OnePoll provided support in ensuring the survey was MRS compliant and that the questions surrounding vaping were suitable for a teenage audience to ask, this included gaining parental consent.  

Method 

  • 5000 respondents were surveyed in total over 4 surveys across 2 markets: 
  • Survey 1: 2000 UK Adults (nationally representative on the basis of age/gender/region) 
  • Survey 2: 2000 US Adults (general population) 
  • Survey 3: 500 UK teenagers aged 15 to 17 via their parents 
  • Survey 4: 500 US teenagers aged 15 to 17 via their parents 
  • The data was broken down by: 
  • Age 
  • Gender 
  • Region / country 
  • Parental status (adult survey only) 
  • Smoker status (adult survey only) 

The Result 

  • OnePoll delivered 9 sets of excel data tables: 
  • 4 Individual excel reports for each survey (UK Adult, UK teenager, US adult, US teenager) 
  • 1 excel report compiling answers from all 5000 respondents 
  • 1 excel report compiling answers from all 2500 UK respondents (both adults and teenager) 
  • 1 excel report compiling answers from all 2500 US respondents (both adults and teenager) 
  • 1 excel report compiling answers from all 4000 adult respondents (both UK and US) 
  • 1 excel report compiling answers from all 1000 teenager respondents (both UK and US) 
  • OnePoll also delivered a merged interactive AI dashboard which allowed the client to filter the data by each demographic question. There were also separate tabs on the dashboard for each survey ran. 

 Stats  

  • 62% think current age verification methods (e.g. ID checks in store or online) could be to bypass when it comes to underage people buying vapes. This rose to 66% in those aged 15 to 17.  
  • 57% say they fear health risks the most about the future of vaping in young people. This was true for just 49% of 18 to 24 year olds.  
  • Nearly seven in ten (69%) think requiring real-time identity verification (e.g. biometrics, mobile apps, or digital IDs) at the point of use for tech-enabled, restricted products would be helpful at preventing misuse. This rose to 79% for 15 to 17 year olds. 

Niche audienceSensitive topicTechnology