Every time I enter Ralphs to buy yet another Strawberry Sunrise Alani, I am forced to reflect on the purported waning strength of my heart as I pass through the “Energy Drink” aisle lined with rows of bright-colored cans holding 300 mg of taurine or “naturally-extracted” green tea caffeine. Despite my friends and the media constantly telling me to stop purchasing energy drinks because I am “going to have a heart attack,” I fight past the negativity and continue to pick up those beautifully decorated cans of death at least three times a week — probably because my body relies on them at this point.
Caffeine is an undeniably addictive stimulant. Around one in four U.S. teenagers consumes caffeine on a daily basis, and caffeine consumption is a habitual practice for around 83% of teens aged 12-19, according to a 2024-2026 University of Michigan study. The Alcohol and Drug Foundation classifies caffeine as a drug — more specifically, a psychoactive stimulant. Even with the news stories, as well as PSAs targeting youth caffeine culture, the hold that big-name companies have on our teenage brains is significantly stronger than bluntly stated facts that try to dissuade teenagers.
These statistics are simply proof of why such a significant number of people continue practicing addictive habits, despite being aware of their bad habits and negative effects, similar to why smokers continue smoking and drug addicts continue using drugs. Pure psychological addiction is so difficult to break away, allowing major companies to easily grab hold of consumers’ vulnerability and begin subtly targeting children.
Yet, it is highly misleading and strictly illegal when it comes to “adult” products. The Federal Trade Commission enforces the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, which protects the online safety of children using methods such as by making deceptive advertising illegal, but the rise in issues that programs like these should combat seems too significant, making it overwhelming. The government needs to increase funding for these protection agencies in order to preserve the minds and bodies of our future.
Popular energy drink Alani Nu faces an ongoing lawsuit regarding the death of a 17-year-old cheerleader from Texas who died from cardiomyopathy. The teenager’s parents claimed that the death was directly linked to Alani Nu’s product and its lack of warning labels for teenagers. However, Alani Nu does contain a label on all of their products, suggesting children refrain from consumption, right next to the 200 mg caffeine content label. The issue was that the teenager was simply overconsuming: she would drink around one to six cans daily, greatly exceeding the suggested limit of 100mg a day for a 17-year-old.
However, the controversy stems from the warning’s lack of visibility, despite its presence. It is a loophole that many big-name companies master to defend themselves against these exact issues. Technically, Alani Nu is not responsible for her death if there was a printed warning label with the exact caffeine content. Nonetheless, unless consumers look for the label intentionally, it is not easy to spot.
As a result of these ongoing concerns, some governments have made more significant changes to combat these problems. The United Kingdom government is currently looking into banning the purchase of energy drinks for any child under the age of 16 because of their risks to development and child wellbeing.
The appearance of the can itself, like almost any other energy drink you can find on shelves, is the dominant issue that creates the consumer base that it does. Almost no child is safe from harmful products because of their playful-like costume to mask the hundreds of potential dangers it poses, such as cardiovascular strain, nervous system disruption and kidney stress. But energy drinks are only a gateway product into this addiction epidemic among children.
Popular electronic cigarette Geek Bar, which originated in 2015, is one of the leading brands of e-cigarettes found at gas stations and vape shops, having established itself as a premier-level disposable vape, with its name becoming more notorious every year and introducing itself to more and more children by the day. As of 2026, 5.9% to 6% of middle and high school students in the United States use e-cigarettes, which equates to around 1.6 million children.
Over decades of advertisements, the nicotine industry has targeted children by using cartoons, such as Joe Camel or Fred Flintstone in the mid-1960s when research about nicotine and tobacco was not as evolved as it is today. Nonetheless, even with these developments in research and multitudes of health concerns raised surrounding the industry, “Big Nic” continues to target children to this day, knowing that illegal fake ID creation and drug dealing run rampant in schools and benefit the industry.
Vapes are easily promoted through their childish flavors and the millions of teens across the internet who normalize their use. Mango, “Miami Mint” and cotton candy are just a few examples of the appealing options of “flavored air” available. Yet, the ease of purchasing these devices and getting addicted is concerning, and many children who are conscious of the deadly effects of vapes justify their addiction by saying “You Only Live Once (YOLO).”
Much of what the media likes to prioritize regarding teens and bad habits mostly pertains to their use of drugs or other stimulants. However, there is a much broader spectrum of products overlooked by the media, only because they do not have as “severe” effects, despite still being harmful – namely, the cosmetics industry.
This industry blew up in popularity among children within recent years, and the term “Sephora Kid” grew in recognition, but not for the right reasons. This term refers to tweens and teens who frequently shop at stores like Sephora or Ulta Beauty, purchasing multitudes of products with chemicals too harsh for young skin, such as retinoids and exfoliants, mostly because this is what they view online. In other words, this trend involves young girls draining their mom’s credit card to add to their anti-aging retinol collection. Mind you, these are 12-year-olds who have barely entered puberty yet. What is the reason? It is simply what these girls see online — older women showing off their most recent Sephora products through “hauls” and collaborations with large brand names. So when children begin to be exposed to these types of products at such an impressionable age, just like being exposed to the world of caffeine and drugs, obsession is inevitable.
Like many other teenagers, I also fall victim to multiple of these “trends,” most prominently with my energy drink addiction. Most of it comes down to the fact that I know how bad they are for me, but I am not instantly affected by them because of how long it takes for them to actually start destroying my body. If energy drinks immediately impacted me, this would be a completely different story, as it would be for a lot of other people.
Even social media has detrimental effects. It attacks mental health, which eventually translates to physical health. According to the University of California Davis Health, social media creates addiction through “dopamine-driven feedback loops, fostering anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem through constant comparison, cyberbullying, and FOMO (fear of missing out).”
Social media, unfortunately, fosters a home of hate and diet culture, with fatphobic jokes running rampant on these platforms, along with the multitude of other weight-related and body image-related jokes that circulate on apps like TikTok. They are simply far too much for a child to be absorbing and processing. Many eating disorders are connected to social media intake because of the unrealistic beauty standards sugarcoated by “health journeys” and “clean eating.” A study from 2023 shows that almost 40% of eating disorders and self-conscious behaviors were found to be connected to social media usage.
But eating disorders are only the tip of the iceberg of what social media provides children with access to. Online predation, exploitation, sextortion, violence and pornography are a few of the many activities that social media provides sick individuals a platform for.
In 2024, records of “Sexual Communication with a Child” offences within the UK increased 89% from 2017-2018, when they were first being recorded. Additionally, “almost half the offences were on Snapchat (48%)” due to the ease of “QuickAdd,” where users can add anybody from around the world at any age, and the lack of permanence of messages or “receipts.” Yet, this all circles back to targeting children. Snapchat is notorious for targeting young audiences with its cute “Bitmoji” avatars and thousands of fun filters, making the app seem childish.
With the second-long viewing term of selfies, the production and distribution of child pornography is incredibly simple, which is why Snapchat should be looked into further by the government and child-protection agencies for the disgustingly insane underground activity that occurs on this simple texting app.
At the same time, though, scrolling through TikTok is many teens’ favorite downtime activity, and Snapchat is a main source of communication for adolescents. So, banning social media for teenagers altogether is not exactly ideal for a lot of teens who are responsible with how they use the apps. For example, government threats to ban TikTok from the U.S. app store, apps attempting to detect users’ ages to place content restrictions and other “random” attempts to control social media usage do not mesh well with how prominent social media is in our culture and lives. Additionally, children will always find a way past these restrictions. However, possibly placing more safety restrictions on what content can be released instead of restricting users from viewing the content may be more effective to regulate what children are exposed to on these websites and apps.
When these types of problems regarding how social media apps should better filter their content, companies like to say they target the problems and maybe make some minuscule tweaks to their algorithms. But, at the end of the day, overfiltered apps and websites typically receive fewer clicks and less engagement, because, naturally, people do not like having so many barriers restricting their exploration of the internet.
Thus, it is a cycle of companies wanting to maintain high engagement while risking the well-being of the youth who make up much of social media user populations. And it is the same reason why energy drink or drug companies continue to target youth populations: they know, statistically, that they have an almost guaranteed clientele that generates billions of dollars every year.
There are some upsides, however harsh they are, to children being exposed to addictive chemicals, drugs and social media. Early exposure and developing the ability to handle what is unfortunately the reality of life can help train children for their future, such as after high school, when parents are no longer around to guide their children in the right direction. Developing these skills earlier on, before future exposure to the overwhelmingness of drugs, sex, bullying, etc., fosters independent and critical thinking about how to process different situations. It is “naturally testing boundaries and gauging physical and emotional capabilities” that is necessary for the success of children in the “real world,” — a topic many parents rightfully fear and hold their children back from.
We can reframe this mindset and normalize working with these companies’ capitalist business models. Although they are not inherently well-intentioned business models, the fact that society knows that teenagers tend to get caught up in dangerous activities, normalizing it, in a sense, means that allowing teenagers to experiment and learn safe and manageable limits is much healthier than completely demonizing and blocking off children from the harsh realities of life.
