• Posted June 23, 2026

Sunscreen Misinformation Popular On TikTok, Study Finds

Healthy use of sunscreen is overwhelmingly promoted in popular TikTok videos, a new study says.

However, people more often like, share and comment on the rare TikTok offerings that feature negative misinformation regarding sunscreen, researchers reported June 18 in the journal PLOS Digital Health.

“Sunscreen misinformation may attract disproportionate attention,” wrote the research team led by Alessandro Marcon, a research associate at the University of Alberta in Canada.

Among these false claims are assertions that sunscreen is toxic or unnecessarily blocks the health benefits of sun exposure, researchers said.

“Sunscreen misinformation on TikTok constitutes an area of concern not for the total sum of overarching influence in terms of content production but rather in how strongly some sunscreen misinformation ideas resonated among particular audiences,” the team said.

Sunscreen applied regularly can help prevent sunburn, skin cancer and premature aging, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine.

Analysis of close to 1,000 most-viewed TikTok videos bearing the top five sunscreen-related hashtags found that nearly 87% promoted sunscreen use wholeheartedly.

Only 6% of the videos were critical of sunscreen, with under 2% saying it causes harm and around 1% arguing it prevents health benefits like vitamin D absorption.

But these critical videos generated significantly higher audience engagement than the ones promoting sunscreen use, researchers found.

“TikToks that solely contain sunscreen critique present significant greater audience interaction in terms of likes, shares and comments in comparison to TikToks that only promote sunscreen,” researchers wrote.

“Our analysis showed TikTok is not necessarily flooded with sunscreen misinformation, but TikToks which dangerously claim that sunscreen is harmful or unnecessary receive comparatively high levels of audience engagement,” the team wrote.

Even positive messaging for sunscreen on TikTok missed a major point regarding its use, researchers noted.

“It was surprising to see so many TikToks promoting sunscreen use without specifically mentioning the important role it plays in cancer prevention,” researchers wrote. “Only 6% of the TikToks analyzed explicitly mentioned the benefits of reducing the risk of skin cancer.”

TikTok content creators commonly promote sunscreen as part of skincare regimens "where sunscreen benefits were more commonly related to beauty rather than health,” the team wrote.

More information

Johns Hopkins Medicine has more on sunscreen use.

SOURCES: PLOS, news release, June 18, 2026; PLOS Digital Health, June 18, 2026