When it comes to teen mental health, social media is a double-edged sword.

For Black, Brown, and LGBTQ teens, social media can be a mental health lifeline they can’t find offline.

Instead of bans, we need consumer protection laws that make everyone’s safety and well-being non-negotiable.

Imagine this. Nearly every teen in Teentown hangs out at the same place—the Teentown Pool. It’s the place to connect, meet new people, learn about parties, and unwind. There’s just one catch: There’s no lifeguard on duty. One exists, technically, but they’re not by the pool and respond to emergencies unreliably.

Despite this, management still encourages teens to swim as long as possible, even if they show signs of fatigue or hypothermia. Most swimmers are fine. But those who aren’t are told it's their own—or their family’s—responsibility to know when to get out of the pool, and to live with whatever anxiety, shame, or fear the experience leaves behind.

There’s another catch. The pool looks private, but it isn’t. Management films swimmers, profiles them, and sells their data to advertisers pushing products that may harm their health: diet supplements to teen girls with normal BMIs, steroids to teen boys. And though Teentown Pool is advertised as teen-safe, adults occasionally slip in, posing as teens, to engage in disturbing, even illegal behavior.

Teens do their best to manage these risks: reporting hazards, taking breaks, ignoring ads, and avoiding the creeps, but it’s unfair to ask them to do it alone. Even so, most teens keep coming back, because the alternative—missing out on where their friends are—carries its own weight. They’re........

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