Ah geez, I'm 25 and that was my reaction too.
The approaches people have described all sound like fine ideas and I give a lot of credit to ideas from people who have parenting experience, but I'll throw in my view just from memories of being a preteen.
I remember that I
expected grownups to conceal information from me, and so I always questioned what I was told. But I was always impressed by small scraps of emotional and factual honesty about drugs (or sex and relationships, or any of the other mysteries of adolescence).
It's okay to admit to him it
does look kinda cool, because he can see that with his own two eyes. Otherwise, you've started out calling a zebra a donkey, so to speak, and I'd have already dismissed it as some kind of grownup conspiracy to avoid telling me about fun things.
But you can add that it's a medical device, something that is only meant to help smokers to stop. But I really think you
can admit that the appearance (and smell, etc.) is definitely nicer than ugly cigarettes, and making it look cooler also helps smokers quit.
Be honest with him about how you'd do it differently if you could -- that you would have rather saved all that money you spent on cigarettes and e-cigarettes, that e-cigs are
only healthier in comparison to the toxic tobacco cigarettes (and that nicotine on young bodies and brains is damaging), and that you just honestly don't want him to get the idea that this is somehow a neat thing to try. You want him to avoid all this, because once you start nicotine or tobacco at a young age, it's very hard to stop, even if you think you're just "experimenting" with it.
Just my two cents. Congrats on starting vaping!
