I think we might be missing the point.

About newsworthiness, hell who knows. About bits of paper, they're worth absolutely peanuts in the real world. That stretches from th'owd O levels all the way up to every other bit of toilet roll you acquire on your way through life.

But the point of getting bits of paper is to prove that you can, that you're vaguely capable of this kind of stuff. Otherwise how does the poor monkey in HR tell the difference between a 16 year old who claims to have spent the last 5 years being an ethical hacker and knows everything (actually what he means was he nicked his mum's email password and has been reading her stuff) and a kid who genuinely does know their stuff?

You've got to remember that HR aren't subject specialists. In the case of a couple of companies I've worked for, HR aren't even HR specialists but that's another story. They've got to have some kind of screening mechanism to try and minimise their effups.

The bloke is 16, I think we should give him some credit. If a 16 year old gets a diploma in something it's usually pretty cool and took some general brightness. Usually. Maybe. Sometimes.

Paris don't need toilet roll though.