What languages and tools do you consider a youngster starting out in programming should use in the modern era?
Lots of us started with proprietary Basics and they didn’t do all of us long term harm 🙂 but given the experiences you have had since then and your knowledge of the domain now are there better options?
There are related queries to this one such as ‘Best ways to teach a beginner to program?‘ and ‘One piece of advice‘ about starting adults programming both of which I submitted answers to but children might require a different tool.
Disclosure: it’s bloody hard choosing a ‘correct’ answer to a question like this so who ever has the best score in a few days will get the ‘best answer’ mark from me based on the communities choice.
I would suggest LEGO Mindstorm, it provides an intuitive drag and drop interface for programming and because it comes with hardware it provides something tangible for a child to grasp. Also, because it is ‘LEGO’ they might think of it as more of a game then a programming exercise.