Tell HN: Thanks to YouTube, my 12 year old asked for a knife for his birthday | Hacker News Reader

Tell HN: Thanks to YouTube, my 12 year old asked for a knife for his birthday

3 pointsgfykvfyxgc8 comments

YouTube is full of videos of people doing tricks with Balisong butterfly knives, presenting them as cool and fun.

In fact Balisong knives are deadly weapons and illegal in many places if the world.

Search YouTube for butterfly knife tricks or Balisong and you’ll see videos with millions of views.

So when I asked my 12 year old what he wants for his birthday he said “a Balisong”.

I got a paratroopers' "Gravity Knife" when 5 years old. It was considered safe, because not much fussing to get the blade out. I think you can get 2 years in New York for having it.

But it did not start well, because I trimmed down some valuable tree saplings. My father started crying, not because of trees, but because he realized his only son is an imbecile.

The father was an imbecile for giving a child a knife.

I strongly disagree with that. As we grow up we need to be exposed to dangerous things in a safe environment, so that we are not confronted with them later when we have no one to teach us. We are surrounded with dangerous tools (such as stoves, cars, freezers, furnaces, lawn mowers, credit cards, the internet, television, casinos, fast food, etc, etc) that absolutely require training to use. As a parent it is your job to provide that training.

I also have to disagree with this. Butterfly knives were “the cool thing to have” when i was 13 (close to 25 years ago) and we definitely did not have youtube telling us about them and pretty much everyone in my class/city had them. I’m not saying it was the right thing by a long shot, but depending where you live I’d guess your kid will end up getting one eventually if they really want it. Imo it’s better to be educated by yourself about the why knives should not be carried and ever considered to be used etc, rather than your kid carrying one in their backpack cause they are trying to hide it from you.

Butterfly knives _are_ cool, and a lot of fun! Of course a 12–year–old is going to ask for one; all of them do. We all wanted butterfly knives decades before Youtube existed so clearly this is not something to can blame Youtube for. I have a sneaking suspicion that our parents wanted butterfly knives when they were our age, even though they acted like it was a terrible idea when we asked for them.

But certainly a person’s first knife should be rather more utilitarian than that. It should be a size suited to their hand, it should be a single–edged knife intended as a practical tool, and you should be able to teach them how to use it effectively and safely to accomplish useful tasks. A simple pocket knife is probably the best choice.

Has he said anything about why he wants that particular kind of knife?

If he wants it as a weapon, that's not inherently a bad thing. Consider enrolling him in martial arts courses (e.g. Judo or Jiu-Jitsu) to safely learn self defense skills. If what he really wants to do is learn how to do knife tricks, there's nothing wrong with that either. That sounds like a cool hobby compared to playing Minecraft or watching TV. I certainly would not be concerned it.

Generally, I think a "boy scout" type knife would be a good gift for a 12 year old. It is typical for a kid to want the most "badass" looking knife possible, but what you should really get him is a Leatherman or something.

There are balisongs that are a comb instead of a blade, or trainers.

That said, I too wanted one in my teens, the problem was that I didn't ask for it, I just bought it, and alot of them.

People will upload the cool tricks they have learned with their knives on Youtube and TikTok but I doubt many of them would be brave enough to upload their mistakes.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com