About ten years ago the average, I repeat, AVERAGE age of hackers was 16. I'm sure it's more like 13 now. :-)
Little devils are sharp. There's no question of that. It's just unfortunate that they don't focus all that savvy toward positive goals.
Well, I try to focus them that way. The military/FBI/CIA/whomever ought to be snatching up some of these kids and paying them to work for the good guys. Many of my students do join the military. I have several who have gone to college on military scholarships and are now serving proudly. The military uses Oracle and many Oracle instructors got their experience there, too.