• Courtesy of Shutterstock

Apparently, it's designed to allow kids to pick colleges or something, but for some reason, the people behind LinkedIn, the social network I usually refer to as "Oh right, that," are expanding their reach to include kids starting at 13. Now, you might ask, why on earth would a 13-year-old want to be on a network based on resumes, recommendations and middle-aged-folk looking for work? The LinkedIn blog sort of explains:

We are updating our User Agreement to make LinkedIn available to students 13 years and older, depending on country. Smart, ambitious students are already thinking about their futures when they step foot into high school — where they want to go to college, what they want to study, where they want to live and work. We want to encourage these students to leverage the insights and connections of the millions of successful professionals on LinkedIn, so they can make the most informed decisions and start their careers off right.

I suppose that's theoretically possible that there are mobs of ambitious teens waiting to get on LinkedIn to start early on their application to the Ivy League, it almost seems more likely that those same young people might need instruction on how to stay off social media, rather than add another site that might provide embarrassment or negative Google results when those colleges start searching.