But the government literally already does that. There's a whole food and drug administration. Weed isn't completely de-scheduled yet despite the number of states that have legalized it. You literally can't go to a shooting range without following the rules of the range, or go skydiving without signing a waiver, you can't buy alcohol until you're 21, and in some states can't even buy cigarettes until then either. Want to rent a car? Can't at 19. The government interferes in cases of public safety all the time.

That being said they aren't attempting to ban tik tok because of the effects on the public's mental health. That's BS. They are trying to force the sale of tik tok to a US friendly tech company because they don't like how much power the CCP has over it. The purpose isn't to protect privacy or mental health. It's to only allow companies friendly to the US to affect the mental health of its residents and collect their private data.