'68 VW Beetle a good first car for a 15 year old?

It's about as unsafe as cars can get it probably can't even safely go highway speeds it'll be very uncomfortable and you will not like it

unsafe w/o any modern safety items; poor fuel mpg; only doofuses drive them

No way. handling was poor in its day, never mind by modern standards. Add poor brakes, lots of rust and terrible fuel economy. Incredibly, this WAS suggested as a first car on a Uk insurance website due to cheap classic car insurance.

No crash protection, no side impact protection, no headrests if you are hit behind, slow as a snail, no/poor heat. Bare bones car. No stereo, no anything.....

A car for purists only as a collector, not a daily driver.

I'd buy it. My first car was a 1952 VW Beetle. That car is a collector item and my be worth over $5000.
Ask him if the cylinders have blow by. You can tell if the push rod seals are leaking a lot of oil.

stupid idea it will be slow and wont brake like modern cars when they jump on the brakes in front of you and people will get annoyed being stuck behind you when they cant pass .

>>>>>>>. http://www.hitech-material.com/ <<<<<<<<

What is the condition if the car? Rust is an issue with these cars! Theese cars have no modern safety features and drum brakes. Much slower to stop. They are easy to work on.
At $1000 it must be in a very poor state. Good ones get a lot of money.
How good a mechanic are you? In theory you can get the engine out in around 1 minute with practice.

If it's been maintained properly and any little issues are taken care of, then it'd make for real decent first car with good old classic appeal and the price sounds incredible. Safety? Their about on par with a hatchback from the 80's. That is to mean their reasonably safe..........provided you never have even a minor little accident. However being from the 60's and having a steel body it'll help minimize damage in the possibility of an accident. It really sounds like a great first car.