Parents are warning that schoolchildren as young as 12 are freely smoking controversial shisha pens in a craze sweeping Canterbury.

The devices – costing as little as £8 and widely available on the internet – produce a lung-full of flavoured water vapour.

While most do not contain nicotine, some products are sold delivering a small hit of the highly addictive substance.

Parents have told of their concerns that children are able to buy the devices.

Speaking with his parents’ consent, one 12-year-old Canterbury schoolboy described how shisha pens are becoming popular among his peers.

“I like the Red Bull-flavoured ones. They come in loads of flavours,” he said. “It’s not like we’re this group that’s bad. Lots of my friends are trying them, and their friends, too.

“It’s all the schools. In town, at the bus station. I know we’re probably not allowed, but I can’t see the harm.”

The youngster added he did not know if his devices had contained nicotine: “I don’t worry about becoming addicted and there’s no way I’d try something harmful like cigarettes.”

Is vaping in public places acceptable? We take a look

However, his mother said: “It sounds like they’re happily puffing away on these things with their school friends. It’s obviously become a fashionable thing to do and they all want to try it.

“I can understand the need to fit in, but we don’t know if it’s harmful or not. It’s unclear.

“But it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that inhaling lung-fulls of manufactured smoke or vapour, or whatever, can’t be good for you.

“And it’s only one step to the next thing, cigarettes.”

Another dad with a 12-year-old son said: “What infuriates me is that these things are clearly aimed at kids.

“They’re milking pocket money from the young and quite possibly risking their health, it’s completely immoral.

“Kids don’t need encouragement to do stupid things, and this is simply a stupid thing to do. It can only lead in one direction – more harmful habits.”

Schools were approached to ask whether they were aware of the concerns.

“They’re milking pocket money from the young and quite possibly risking their health, it’s completely immoral" - a dad

Only two seemed to have set rules in place specifically addressing the issue.

Kirstin Cardus, head teacher at Barton Court, said shisha pens had been banned by the school for a number of years.

She said: “E-cigarettes or shisha pens are a ‘school-banned item’ along with lighters, matches, cigarette filters, laser pens, pressurised gas canisters and spray paints.”

Pupils caught with banned items faced detention or “internal exclusion.”

The school’s behaviour policy, including staged sanctions, was communicated to parents and students annually and was displayed in all form rooms.

She said: “Students at Barton Court are fully aware of the consequences if these items are brought into school or purchased outside school in school uniform.”

Mike Walters, head of St Anselm’s on the Old Dover Road, says he is only aware of two incidents in the last three years involving pupils using shisha pens at the school.

He said: “The school’s policy on vaping, e-cigarettes and shisha pens, whether they are nicotine-containing products or not, is that we treat them as we would cigarettes/tobacco.”

Canterbury High head teacher Phil Karnavas acknowledged that he knew of the devices but was not aware of any instances involving pupils bringing them to school.

He said: “We would resist them, we would resist anything like that that’s taken into the students’ bodies.

“Our policy is we don’t want them. We don’t condone them.”

Both Simon Langton Boys’ and Simon Langton Girls’ schools say they have never been made aware of any issue with the devices.

Ken Moffat, head of school at the boys’ school, said: “I’m unaware of this latest phenomenon and haven’t seen any in evidence at the school.

“If I did, then I would certainly be imposing sanctions. The current generation of students seems more health conscious than the previous and are a pretty clean-living bunch.”

Jane Robinson, head of the girls’ school, said: “This certainly isn’t an issue here and has never been brought to our attention by parents, students or staff. We therefore don’t have any policies surrounding them.”

Dr Julian Spinks, who's a GP based in Strood, said: "Shisha pens are very similar to e-cigarettes, the devices work in the same way.

"The main difference is the majority of them don't have nicotine in the liquid that goes in them but some do.

"If your children are using things with nicotine in them they could become dependent on them just as they would if they took cigarettes or e-cigarettes.

"Even if it hasn't got nicotine in, they have ingredients like propylene glycol and food flavourings.

"Now, just because something is safe to swallow, it doesn't necessarily mean it's going to be safe when inhaled and you're looking at children's lungs which are more immature and more likely to get damaged.

"They're not going to get hooked if they have no nicotine in the sense of a physical sense but they may start to think of it as normal and the idea of inhaling things.

"Then, sooner or later, someone will say well why don't you try the ones with nicotine in them so we don't really want to start them this young on to something which is going to perhaps lead to harm in the future."

Stories you might have missed

Teen jailed after brutal rapes of lone women

Abuser jailed over child sex offences

Police investigated over woman's train death

Motorway re-opens after trailer overturns