LinkedIn lowers age of consent to 13 LinkedIn, generally regarded as the premier social network for grown ups with jobs, has decided 13 year olds are now welcome as members. The reason is a new creation called “University Pages” that LinkedIn feels “will be especially valuable for students making their first, big decision about where to attend college.” As of …
The main reason I can't take LinkedIn seriously is the amount of spam in their name. Some of it is quite sophisticated phishing, while a lot of it is just abuse of their link shorteners. Some of the phishing is so good that the only way I'm sure is because it arrives at an email address that was never known to my LinkedIn account. The link shortening stuff could be cured by hijacking the links--but only IF LinkedIn actually cared about their reputation.
I think the endorsement thing is silly, but I don't rate it as a major negative. Just another reason to ignore LinkedIn. Perhaps it could be made credible if the reputation of the endorsers was verified outside of the network? In other works, hierarchical endorsements would be okay, but circular endorsements would be reduced in value...
LinkedIn has a filter on my email as I got pissed off with the requests (and bogus requests) that keep coming.
It had become a sort of 'I'm a real grown-up, me. I've got a LinkedIn account' and they generally came from people who should never run a business.
That seems to be allot of it. "Look at me being a real business person! I have a LinkedIn account!".
The company I work for is in education. We have allot to do with MBA and EMBA students. I have fuck all to do with the actual education side (I'm on the money side) but still have some dealings with these students. Yet still I get a fair number of LinkedIn requests emailed to me, even though I don't have a LinkedIn account.
Toddlers now admitted on LinkedIn.
Get in early and make those vital connections you will need now AND later on in life. Connect with Winnie the Pooh, Mickey Mouse, Teletubbies and many more key figures of the toddler world. Get endorsements for your skills, from walking to talking to bubble blowing, potty and computer / smartphone operation. Get a start in life. Get linked in!
"This sounds more like a requirement to boost numbers rather than provide any reasonable service."
Exactly my thoughts. Have an up.
This is about nurturing a bank balance, not nurturing youngsters in the pursuit of education.
I cannot see any university aspiring teenager getting any useful information from Linked In that could not be found elsewhere. Elsewhere places that don't request personal and private data in order to pass on that information.
Let's face it; social networking at the business level is just another form of advertising, PR and self promotion.
Aiming LinkedIn at children and students is of questionable value to both the children and to LinkedIn, I think it devalues LinkedIn and relegates it to just another social networking site but opens up for them an expanded range of targeted ads to earn from.
As far as the Skills Endorsement thing goes I have been endorsed for some skills that I have never heard of, so my proficiency in them must be an act of god.
So LinkedIn is supposed to be the "grown up" networking site, where you advance your career (although I have never had a job offer through it).
Based on the ill-advised nature of the posts on Facebook by most youngsters, won't this just result in them ruining their career prospects before they've even started?
GitHub's "must be 13 years old to use this service" thing is annoying, as plenty of kids these days are doing programming stuff at various levels of competency (some quite good).
But LinkedIn...? Can't really see a benefit from this for anyone other than LinkedIn themselves. (padding their membership numbers, as mentioned by another commenter above)
Maybe time will prove me wrong (doubt it though). :)
The main use for LinkedIn when it comes to recruitment is surely to see if you have any friends in common, so you can get an unofficial verbal reference down the pub one evening. It might also be useful to check whether claimed experience on LinkedIn matches that on the CV.
I've certainly seen hits on my profile from companies to which I've applied in the past, so it's part of the process.
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