All articles tagged with #teens
Crowds at Chicago’s 57th Street Beach and North Avenue Beach triggered a heavy police presence, a helicopter, and traffic backups on DuSable Lake Shore Drive after reports of a planned teen takeover; authorities dispersed groups and monitored for potential teen trend activity, with no confirmed injuries reported at this time.
During a Memorial Day weekend “teen takeover” on Chicago’s West Side, an 18-year-old driver struck five officers while they were dispersing a crowd on South Loomis Street; the driver was arrested, none of the officers were seriously injured, and a gun was found in the car. About 30 minutes earlier, a 19-year-old was shot near West Roosevelt Road, part of a day in which at least 19 people were shot citywide. Police say the shootings may not be linked, and CPD urged parents to monitor their children as the teen-takeover trend continues to spread.
Several hundred teens and young adults illegally occupied Long Branch’s Pier Village and nearby streets on Tuesday night for an unauthorized pop-up event, prompting riot-gear officers to disperse the crowd as 139 officers activated mutual aid; officials imposed an 8 p.m. curfew ahead of Memorial Day weekend, and NJ Transit reported delays as many attendees traveled to the Jersey Shore by train. Six suspects were arrested—two Newark women (ages 19 and 20) and three Newark juvenile females—for disorderly conduct, with a sixth suspect, a boy from New Brunswick, charged with eluding; investigators were also looking into two aggravated assaults and an alleged motor-vehicle theft tied to the chaos.
Two teenage gunmen armed with handguns and rifles stormed the Islamic Center of San Diego, killing a security guard who sacrificed his life protecting worshippers; the suspects died from self-inflicted gunshots as police arrived. Investigators say they were radicalized online and left a manifesto, with about 30 firearms recovered in searches. The FBI and local authorities continue to probe motives and target considerations.
After a Chipotle brawl in the Navy Yard, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro renewed her threat to prosecute parents of minors who commit crimes and urged the D.C. Council to pass an emergency youth curfew.
Two teens, aged 15 and 17, are in custody in connection with about a dozen shootings across Austin that injured four people, with a third suspect detained. The spree began after a stolen car and a stolen handgun and most incidents occurred in South Austin, including an attack near a fire station. A shelter-in-place order was issued during the manhunt as investigators seek multiple suspect vehicles; the case remains active and ongoing.
A growing number of teens are injecting black-market peptides they find on social media—such as retatrutide and melanotan—for quick weight loss and tanning. Sourced through informal networks like Telegram, these products are often labeled “not for human consumption” and used in DIY stacks, with minimal medical oversight and unknown long-term health risks. Experts warn that adolescence is a critical development period, and unregulated, rapidly acting peptides can have serious consequences, including hormonal disruption, cardiovascular issues, and skewed body image driven by looksmaxxing culture.
An 18-year-old, Ryan Duvall, died when the car he was a passenger in veered off the road in Cockeysville and struck a tree; three other teens were hospitalized. Police have not yet determined the crash’s cause. Tributes poured in, and a GoFundMe fundraiser has raised more than $34,000 toward funeral expenses.
The resurfacing of the ‘Benadryl challenge’ on TikTok is prompting teens to take excessive Benadryl to feel a high, a trend tied to serious health risks including heart problems, seizures, coma, or death. Hospitals have treated more than 100 overdoses in six months, including a recent teen death, prompting FDA warnings and calls for securing medications and removing dangerous videos from platforms. health experts urge parents to have open conversations with their kids about social media content.
A Vox explainer on how a new wave of MAHA (Make America Healthy Again) influencers—young women and teens—are redefining wellness content for teens, blending diet-focused messages with distrust of institutions, raising concerns about misinformation and potential health risks, and prompting educators to meet Gen Z where they are online to teach critical evaluation of health claims.
Two 18-year-olds in Ocala were arrested after one drove a lawnmower through a Target store, damaging a door, while the other filmed the incident; the night before, the same teen used a leaf blower inside a Culver’s. Szkaradek faces criminal mischief and disorderly conduct charges, and Charske is charged as a principal with disorderly conduct.
A Swedesboro family in the Philly area pursued sleeve gastrectomy for their 15-year-old son with Down syndrome, leading to about 70 pounds lost and renewed energy for activities, illustrating that metabolic and bariatric surgery can be a safe, effective option for adolescents with obesity when backed by thorough medical and psychological evaluation. Yet fewer than 1% of eligible youths receive this intervention, and new guidelines since 2023 advocate considering weight-loss medications and surgical options earlier alongside lifestyle changes.
A large, longitudinal study of 11,036 U.S. youths aged about 9–10 to 16–17 found that cannabis use during adolescence is linked to slower development across memory, attention, and processing speed, with THC exposure driving most of the effects and CBD exposure showing relatively normal scores. While causality can’t be proven, researchers controlled for family background, mental health, and other substances, suggesting that delaying cannabis use may help protect the developing brain. The findings come from the ABCD study and were published in Neuropsychopharmacology, with even small cognitive differences potentially affecting learning, standardized testing, and daily functioning.
A UC San Diego-led analysis of more than 11,000 youths finds that teens who begin using cannabis show slower gains in memory, attention and processing speed over time, with THC exposure associated with worse memory; CBD exposure showed no clear pattern. The researchers caution that causality isn’t proven and will continue tracking participants into young adulthood to understand long-term effects.
Pew Research Center surveyed 1,458 U.S. teens aged 13–17 and their parents (Sept. 25–Oct. 9, 2025) to compare experiences on TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat. Entertainment is the top reason for using all three, with TikTok showing the strongest pull; Snapchat emphasizes keeping up with friends, while TikTok/Instagram lead for product reviews and news. Snapchat users DM more (about 57% daily) and post more often (roughly 30% daily) than the other platforms, and about 30% of TikTok users say they spend too much time on the app. Most teens report a mostly positive overall experience, though TikTok users report stronger negative effects on sleep and productivity, while Snapchat is seen as helping friendships. About a quarter of parents say social media hurts their teen’s mental health, vs 8% who say it helps. Harassment is common across platforms, with about 75% of users viewing it as a problem and roughly 30% of Snapchat users experiencing at least one type of harassment. Self-esteem effects are mixed, but most teens say what they see on these platforms does not change their self-esteem.