A Ballarat year 10 class has produced a series of videos to help tackle youth vaping, as a nationwide crackdown on recreational use of the devices is launched.
On Wednesday, Mount Clear College's school theatre was packed with students, teachers, and health experts for a special film premiere — of sorts.
Three short videos were shown to the audience, each focusing on the harmful impacts of vaping.
Each of the clips were produced by Year 10 media students over several weeks last year.
Students Rebecca Osbourne and Jade Trewhella worked together on the video Loyalty Card, which focused on a teenage girl "trading" her health for a vape.
"It shows that there isn't really any good thing about vaping," Jade said.
"I think it's important because our message is, don't sacrifice things to fit in. And I think a lot of people [vape] so they can fit in," Rebecca added.
Jade and Rebecca, now in Year 11, said they hoped the videos would resonate with other young people, and stop them from participating in the dangerous trend.
According to research conducted by the Cancer Council Victoria, young people aged 18–30 years made up the largest proportion of vape users in 2022.
"It starts with young people because they're the most easily influenced by things like [vaping]. If we stop it now, it'll gradually get better," Jade said.
Schools call for help amid 'increasing' vaping numbers
The project was in partnership with Ballarat Community Health (BCH), which works with secondary schools across the region.
Mt Clear College principal Lynita Taylor said the initiative was among measures taken by the school to help curb vaping among its student cohort.
"Our students know there's a zero-tolerance for vaping and we've got the education around it now," Ms Taylor said.
BCH health promotion officer Jacinta Walsh said the local organisation had been inundated with requests from other schools reaching out for support amid the youth vaping problem.
"Our approach was to work in partnership with young people to create something for young people to get the messaging across," Ms Walsh said.
"If we just said, 'Don't do it', that wasn't going to work."
Ms Walsh said BCH welcomed the federal government's announcement this week that recreational vaping will be banned in Australia.
"These changes need to come into effect. And we need to get it right, to stop vaping from becoming even more popular and common," she said.
