LinkedIn is a business and employment orientated social networking service. According to Kim Garst, author at the Huffpost, LinkedIn has over 225 million users.
Being the world’s largest professional network it was a condition that individuals had to be 18 years or older in order to join. Well this is not the case anymore. Garst notes “LinkedIn announced that they, together with 200 hand-selected schools, were launching a new product called “University Pages”. It was thought that by creating the page high school students could have the opportunity to interact and engage with teachers as they prepare themselves for their future careers.
The downside of children joining LinkedIn
Children now as young as 13 and 14 years old are joining LinkedIn and although this may sound like a good idea, it is a big concern for most parents.
LinkedIn is a social network full of adults. Thus, by inviting children to join, this could potentially put them at risk for becoming victims of online predators and social grooming.
90% of 13 – 17 year olds have a form of social media account; however, what makes LinkedIn so concerning is the fact that it is adult dominated.
On the one hand Psychologists state that parents should encourage their children to live a carefree childhood and not worry about their online profiles and careers so early on in life. On the other hand, it may be a way for high school children to start thinking about their careers as well as what they want to achieve in life.
Safety precautions
Quentin Fottrell, author of the article Does your kid need a LinkedIn profile draws attention to the fact that “LinkedIn members under 18 will have different default settings to limit publicly available information. Their birth year will be hidden, their profile photo will only be viewable to people they are connected to, and their public profile will not appear in search engines like Google”.
Although safety precautions are put in place having your child join an adult professional social networking site is still of concern. However, with the negative aspects come positive aspects. In the end, it is up to the parents to decide what they feel is best for their children.
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