Wall Of Shame: Brits Are Drunk In Three Quarters of Facebook Photos

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Reuters

Cheers: 93 percent of Brits admitted de-tagging Facebook photos of themselves because they were "too embarrassing"

We’ve all been there. You wake up feeling slightly worse for wear, before finding on Facebook an entire gallery of embarrassing photos depicting last night’s antics. Frantically de-tagging, your one hope is that your boss/parents/partner (delete as appropriate) have yet to see that one of you drunkenly failing to prove that it’s possible to lick your elbow.

And it seems that Britons are leading the way when it comes to social-networking shame, with adults admitting they are drunk in 76 percent of their Facebook photos, according to the Daily Telegraph.

A survey of 1,781 Facebook users by Mymemory.com unearthed some sobering results.

More than half of those surveyed said they had photos of them on Facebook that they wouldn’t want their co-workers to see, while 8 percent admitted they are tagged in picture that could land them in “serious trouble” at work.

NewsFeed feels compelled to add that the research took place before Christmas party season was in full-swing — so one shudders to think what these figures would look like now.

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Along with their laissez-faire approach to sobriety, the Brits also displayed a surprisingly lax approach to security. One in four had non-existant privacy settings (i.e. their photos can be viewed by absolutely anyone), while 58 percent said that all of their Facebook friends can access their photos.

Fortunately for their pride, and employment prospects, Brits are somewhat adept at  damage control with 93 percent admitting they’d de-tagged compromising photos because they were “too embarrassing.” Although this modicum of modesty doesn’t extend to extend to their friends — the poll found that two thirds of Brits had intentionally tagged friends in embarrassing photos so that others would see them as well.

“We’re all guilty of going out and having a good time, but nowadays the photos inevitably catch up with us online, so we wanted to look at how much these photos dominate our presence on social media sites,” Rebecca Huggler of MyMemory.com told the paper. “The thing to remember is that most photos are taken on special occasions or get-togethers with friends and family.”

So if you’re going to a Christmas party this week remember to take your wallet, but don’t feel bad about forgetting the camera — your British colleagues may thank you in the morning!

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Jak Phillips is a contributor at TIME. Find him on Twitter at @JakPhillips. You can also continue the discussion on TIME’s Facebook page and on Twitter at @TIME.