S.E. Cupp is a CNN political commentator and the host of "S.E. Cupp Unfiltered," covering contemporary issues on HLN. The views expressed in this commentary are solely hers.

(CNN) I was recently fumbling around on the internet, as we all do to pass the 20-minute train ride or the three-minute wait for dry cleaning, and found myself engrossed in TED talks by teenagers.

You know TED talks -- those brainy but often pretentious lectures given by thought leaders in technology, entertainment and design. Well, a handful of super-impressive teenagers have done some truly incredible things -- things like built a nuclear fusion reactor (don't worry, it's benevolent), or developed a test for pancreatic cancer, or combated child marriage.

If these kids are our future leaders, we're in good hands. On the other hand, in a Venn diagram of teenagers, I'm betting there's little to no overlap between these world-changing go-getters and the simple-minded dolts who are behind the so-called "Tide pod challenge," a moronic attention-getting stunt where teens record themselves putting laundry pods in their mouths -- incidentally, the last place you'd want to put one. Or at least, one of the last -- but let's not give them any dumb(er) ideas.

A spokesperson for the American Association of Poison Control Centers says that in the first 11 days of 2018, there had been 40 reported exposures to liquid laundry detergent pods by 13- to 19-year-olds, a group otherwise known as "should know better." More than half of those have been deliberate

In case you didn't know that putting toxic chemicals in your mouth was unwise, here's a doctor to spell it out. "They can cause burns in the mouth," says Dr. Rais Vohra, a medical toxicologist at UCSF Fresno. "If the liquid bursts open and goes in the back of the throat, they could cause burns in the back of the throat which would necessitate an ER visit or even ICU admission."

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