You cannot tell me with a straight face that someone trying to pull this crap does not know exactly what they're doing.
At a basic level they understand exactly what they're doing. But their prefrontal cortex isn't yet completely developed. So they don't understand just how harmful their actions are.
I did some stupid stuff as a teenager that I certainly am not proud of right now. But, at the time, I didn't at all understand the broader ramifications of my stupid behavior and the harm it caused others.
I don't know. It sounds a bit too much like excuses. I was also a teenager and was not stupid enough to try anything stupid. My reptilian brain always managed to stop me. Like this time I was going to get into a fist fight (it was not my first), I was willing but my reptilian brain was not in agreement. It actually tried to freeze my legs.
The concept of a "reptilian brain" is a) no longer espoused by neuroscientists and b) if true would be the thing egging you on, not freezing your legs.
Recommend you listen to this [1] interview that I heard earlier today. It's by a Stanford neuroscientist, discussing why and how the teenage brain leads their owners to be impulsive, addiction-prone, and just generally idiotic.
The TLDR: they really don't know exactly what they're doing, because the physical substrate for their cognition can't yet support those functions.
Try them as adults. You cannot tell me with a straight face that someone trying to pull this crap does not know exactly what they're doing.