Perils & pearls of purchasing sun protection over the internet: A google project

Sunscreen use has been shown to reduce the incidence of skin cancers. Internet purchasing allows access to internationally sourced sunscreens, despite varying accepted active ingredients and regulations around the world.

To determine the compliance of international sunscreen products advertised on the internet with the current Australian sunscreen standard (AS/NZS 2604:2012).

Six sunscreen-related search queries were executed on Google between January-November 2018. Qualitative analysis of the search results to determine compliance with the current Australian sunscreen standard (AS/NZS 2604:2012) was performed by collecting descriptive data, including listed active ingredients of each advertised product. These were compared against the AS/NZS 2604:2012 list of permitted active ingredients. The compliance status of each product, and reasons for non-compliance were annotated. A multiple regression contingency table test was performed to determine whether compliance was associated with the products' country of origin, and a post hoc analysis was performed to identify countries with significant differences in discrepancy in compliance rate.

Execution of the sunscreen-related search queries on Google generated 1350 results. Only 613 of the 1291 (47.5%) included products were compliant with the AS/NZS 2604:2012 permitted sunscreen active ingredients. 552 of 1291 products were non-compliant due to insufficient information advertised. Australia, India and South Korea had significantly lower than expected compliance rates.

Online marketing of sunscreen products from other countries has a significantly lower than expected compliance rate with the AS/NZS 2604:2012 permitted sunscreen active ingredients, with many lacking the disclosure of the active ingredients. Advertising regulations for online suppliers need to be tightened to ensure that online consumers purchasing sunscreen products can make informed decisions, as the international E-commerce market rapidly expands.