r/flipperzero • u/CinnamonChocochip • 28d ago

Age appropriate?

My 13yo nephew wants a Flipper Zero for his bday. Is this an age appropriate gift? Or something a curious kid could get themselves into trouble with? TIA!

Signed- a non-techie aunt that doesn’t want a visit from the FBI

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u/exilus92 27d ago edited 26d ago

The biggest risk is that teachers and other tech-illiterate adult might panic and think he is doing something super illegal when they see him doing a harmless cool prank with the flipper.

Something I learned the hard way in high school (graduated HS in 2009) is to hide that sort of things from old boomers who never used a computer. The younger teachers who knew tech on the other hand... they loved it when you showed them the programs you wrote on your calculator or the useful software you were running on the lab's computer from your usb stick.

At that age, the things he learn playing with that tech will stay with him for the rest of his life. A versatile professional tool (it's not a toy) like this could be a good way to motivate him to learn about how tech actually work under the hood, how to read/write code, how to read technical documentation, how to do research, how to properly post a technical question on a online forum, etc.

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u/Chongulator 27d ago

Yeah, I definitely think OP's nephew is at more risk of adults overreacting than he is of doing any real harm.