[jobposter1234]

Seeing as this thread is about software, I think the point might be that kids know they can't really break software, so they're more willing to experiment.

Informing my mom that she should just try stuff out on her Mac b/c she isn't going to break stuff was huge to help her get over her fear that she's going to click a wrong button and break something on a very expensive device.

[This doesn't address the issue of malware, of course, which is (in a sense) "breaking" your security by clicking a link]

[mhurron]

Breaking things can mean many things, from physically breaking it to loss of data.

Either way, kids don't care yet and just plow on doing whatever.

[kaybe]

Ah, I was indeed talking about software, and about people breaking things by accident.

I had the same issue with my mom, it became better when I told her that the computer will ask before doing something irreversal (and even then it might be fixable), and I will only help her after she thinks she broke it.

While I was happily taking apart the OS as a kid. The only thing that really broke was a game that switched to US layout after I checked it out in a hex editor. (The Sims, you can read the comments in the code, quite neat. :) )