Like many 19-year-olds of her generation, Makai Wallace, from South Jordan, Utah, cares deeply about her friends, her skin care routine and staying healthy. She also loves a good viral moment on TikTok. But she was surprised to be the face of one after she posted from inside a tanning bed in October. Her video, which amassed over 71,000 views, provoked numerous concerned reactions from the medical community.

“The lioness does not concern herself with ‘skin cancer,’” Ms. Wallace wrote in her post, sticking her tongue out and squinting from the ultraviolet light.

Dr. Brooke Jeffy, a dermatologist in Scottsdale, Ariz., who worked at a tanning salon as a teenager, was one of the doctors who posted a response. “Tanning beds are in the same cancer-causing category as asbestos and plutonium,” she said in the video, adding that using one before age 35 increases your risk for melanoma by 75 percent. “That’s 7-5,” she said.

Ms. Wallace’s casual shrug at the risks of tanning echoes a surprisingly common attitude among Gen Z-ers. Many keep tabs on the UV index, checking weather apps to determine when they can get the most ultraviolet exposure. Tanfluencers, as some social media users call themselves, are posting about “tanmaxxing” with carrot-extract enhancers, or showing off tan lines — and sunburns — after a day soaking up the rays.

A new survey on sun habits from the American Academy of Dermatology found that only 25 percent of Gen Z respondents (ages 18 to 29) reported concern about developing skin cancer in their lifetime, compared with 39 percent of the general population. What’s more, 20 percent said that getting a tan was more important than preventing skin cancer, compared with 14 percent of the overall group.

Experts say young people could be actively defying the warnings about sun exposure — after all, many grew up hearing them from parents, doctors, and in some cases, school programs. Or they could be unsure what to believe, a product of the misinformation promoted on social media and from public figures like Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who uses tanning beds. (The Food and Drug Administration recently withdrew a proposal that would have banned them for minors.) Either way, experts are confounded.