Middlesex County, Ontario | Anything less than 50 volts is commonly considered to be safe to handle. Even if it was 80 volts, DC electrocution through the hand is pretty safe compared to AC across the chest. Your son won't get shocked with that power supply unless he jams wires into his skin. A good lesson I learned as a kid came by connecting 9v batteries in series one at a time until I had enough batteries to feel the current flow through my hands.
A power supply like that is a staple in any electronics lab, I highly recommend getting it for him and letting him continue with his projects. I wish I had a power supply like that when I was a kid. The power supply is adjustable voltage but he will probably just be using the 5v setting most of the time. The really useful feature is the adjustable current limit, its like an adjustable breaker. You can dial in exactly how much current is allowed before the current limiter cuts off power. Shorting things on a breadboard is inevitable and part of learning, but with the adjustable cut-off you can usually prevent anything from frying or letting the smoke out of anything.
He will still need to have his circuits connected to the laptop for programming, and frying the USB port on his laptop is still a real concern. I have a dead USB port on my desktop from the same thing, it was shorted many times before it was damaged. To protect the laptop you could get him an inexpensive powered USB hub. A powered USB hub will power the circuit from it's own wall adaptor and will isolate the laptop from the circuit. It has to be a powered USB hub with a wall plug, not an un-powered USB hub without a wall plug.
https://www.amazon.com/Splitter-Transfer-Charging-Individual-Switche...
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Christmas present for son. But don’t want him to get shocked
