鈥淭he internet is not written in pencil, Mark. It鈥檚 written in ink.鈥� So says the fictionalised girlfriend of the fictionalised Mark Zuckerburg in the movie The Social Network. It鈥檚 not just that the internet is written in indelible ink, it鈥檚 that it鈥檚 written in magical self-replicating ink. So beware: the tweet you wrote today is not gone tomorrow. And let鈥檚 not forget those magical self-replicating pictures 鈥� they may come back to haunt you too.
So what can you do if the first thing that comes up when you google yourself is akin to Prince Harry in a Nazi uniform? Crawl under the duvet, turn off the Wi-Fi and vow never to show your face in cyberspace again? Surprisingly, that is exactly what you shouldn鈥檛 do. The key to restoring your online reputation is to actually get out there more. By tweeting and posting intelligently and regularly you can shunt anything embarrassing to the backwaters of the Google search.