Mother looking for advice...

[BTCWizard]

Sure, I'd say you should let him go for it. It won't be profitable on a laptop and it will likely cost more in electricity than he'll earn in coins, but it will be an educational experience and should play an overall positive in his life. The small negative ROI (I can't imagine it costing more than $10 a month in electricity to mine on a laptop) shouldn't be a that big a deal.

If you or him has the money though, building a real mining rig would probably be a better idea though. This way, it will actually be profitable and he will be able to earn a much more substantial amount of coins.

+1

Nothing to add, just let him mine a bit and if you have spare money, build a rig. There are worse hobbies imaginable a kid can have. 

[kalus]

it's not going to hurt anything.  just make sure he goes outside once and a while.  your basement doesn't get enough natural light.

[Kenta]

I have let my two underage sons mine Molecules respectively on a laptop and a MAC. I think they have been making up to 500 molecules each, every day since Christmas.

On the MAC they had to compile the miner from a guide we found by googling, and they learned a lot from it. Much better than playing computer games all day during the entire Christmas holidays...

I truly believe MOL will become worth real money in the future, given the parameters it has and the situation being not preminted. In addition it hasn't been ruined by being introduced on an exchange too early, and the early-miners/profit-takers factor will hopefully be stabilized before it happens.

The energy costs can be neglected if it's winter where you live and you use electricity to heat up the house anyway. 

[Duane Vick]

I would have him draw up a business plan and let him run it like a real for-profit business. You can let him finance the cost of equipment through you, put a kill-a-watt meter on his computer and let him pay for the electricity he uses, etc. He's young enough to learn to be an entrepreneur without it devastating his lifestyle if the business fails. Who knows, maybe he will enter adulthood as a millionaire.

[Panteraswift]

I would have him draw up a business plan and let him run it like a real for-profit business. You can let him finance the cost of equipment through you, put a kill-a-watt meter on his computer and let him pay for the electricity he uses, etc. He's young enough to learn to be an entrepreneur without it devastating his lifestyle if the business fails. Who knows, maybe he will enter adulthood as a millionaire.

+1
It will be a great learning experience at many levels.