When I was a little girl my father gave me my first guitar, it was acoustic. He had played for several years, and his point of view was that an acoustic would give me a better learning experience because it is more difficult. You have to press a bit harder to make the notes ring out, and thus I would form better habits and stronger fingers, and on the whole he was correct.

However, if you believe that the added frustration that an acoustic might bring would dissuade you from learning, then by all means, pick up an electric first.

Just MHO,
Victoria