You underestimate what kids are capable of. Computers are particularly easy for that age group to learn about, all you really need is internet access to read a

You underestimate what kids are capable of. Computers are particularly easy for that age group to learn about, all you really need is internet access to read articles or possibly (pirated) ebooks, and your own computer to experiment on. A lot of kids have both. Other industries aren't like that, some require expensive and uncommon equipment (biology, chemistry, now AI), some are a lot more dangerous (electronics, DIY), some require interactions with other people to practice (law, medicine, foreign languages), and nobody treats kids seriously enough to interact with them in that way, some have legal restrictions (medicine, driving cars) etc. It also helps that, to a clueless parent, a kid learning to code is indistinguishable from a kid using their computer to play games, and plenty of kids do that. Society doesn't let kids get a real programming job, even if they're perfectly capable of doing so, so hacking is often the next best thing. The fact that it's "cool" and that you can do it to impress your peers doesn't help either. Incidentally, this is also why kids are such good drug dealers.