Editorial: Bragging online can cost you

Photo / Ben Fraser

Social media and the internet have really made the world a village.

Nowadays, we are able to stay in the lives of people who, through distance and time, we would have lost touch with. Now we can be there for the important occasions in their lives.

Facebook reminds you when it is a "friend's" birthday and it is quite simple to post a message on their timeline.

But, Facebook and YouTube have also become places where your life, and all its imperfections, are laid bare.

We have all heard the stories of prospective employers checking out job applicants' Facebook pages to see if they are suitable for the job or staff members getting into trouble at work for behaviour that brings their company into disrepute.

A story in our paper today takes this to a whole new level. A Napier man has been convicted of serious driving charges after a video of him drifting his car toward oncoming traffic was posted on YouTube.

The video showed Jason A'Court, 26, driving dangerously through Napier streets and drifting his car around corners, crossing the centre line and forcing other drivers to take evasive action.

I am sure A'Court thought it would be fun to share the footage, taken by a friend inside his Nissan Skyline, with his mates.

However, the plan backfired when someone alerted the police to the video and they tracked him down.

Before he knew it he was convicted and had been sentenced to 300 hours' community work and disqualified from driving for nine months.

Crime certainly doesn't pay and neither does bragging about it.

Hopefully, others who think drifting is a game will learn from this.