It might seem like a bit of a laugh on the night – even something to groan about with your pals the morning after.
But now images of north-east youngsters in drunk and embarrassing situations are being exhibited in an online rogues’ gallery – making a modern day freak show of its unwitting stars and leaving a lasting record of lapses they may live to regret.
Caught Drunk, run by former Oxford publican Barry Carter, already encourages youngsters to post photographs of their drunk friends and strangers – and now the sick website is hiring undercover photographers to target north-east revellers.
Mr Carter’s company is offering to pay mercenary photographers £50 to work in secret across the north of Scotland, snapping humiliating shots of drinkers at pubs, parties and nightclubs.
Some of the images already featured on Caught Drunk’s website and Facebook pages include unconscious young men and women, people having sex and most disturbingly – on the Fraserburgh webpage – images of missing Shaun Ritchie before he vanished last year.
The 20-year-old disappeared in mysterious circumstances following a Halloween party and – despite one of the largest north-east search and rescue operations in recent years – he has never been found.
Last night Mr Ritchie’s heartbroken sister Nicole Shand said she had not been aware that images of her brother were being shared on the site – and was appalled to see him depicted in such a fashion.
Miss Shand said: “I think it’s terrible they still have pictures of my brother on that website after the tragedy and everything that has happened. Thank you for letting me know because I think it is disgusting.”
Mr Ritchie’s photo was removed from the website after the Press and Journal contacted Mr Carter, however, many other disturbing images remain – including one showing a young blonde woman lying in a bathroom in her underwear.
The Caught Drunk team have captioned it: “In wine there is wisdom, in beer there is freedom, in vodka…well there’s just the toilet.”
Despite a lengthy disclaimer on the website which states pictures can only be uploaded with the express permission of the photographer, many people and parents have already posted complaints on the company’s town-specific Facebook pages.
Mr Carter defended the gallery and denied allegations he and his company Caught Drunk Ltd were exploiting humiliated youngsters for profit.
He said: “These pages are supposed to be fun between like-minded people and in no way to cause distress to anyone.”
He said he agreed to any requests to remove pictures, adding that people who had sent the offending material would be warned or blocked from the page if it was a serious issue.
When challenged on why a photograph of an underage teenage boy dressed as a woman had not been taken down – despite a request from his mother – Mr Carter said: “Unfortunately they never messaged the page and only left their request in the comment line.
“I obviously don’t read all the comments across 300-plus pages but nevertheless that photo has now been removed I just wish they had messaged into the page and it could have been done sooner.”
Mr Carter claimed he was now working to develop Caught Drunk as a “fun, social experience”.
The website, which also has a Youtube channel of embarrassing videos, boasts specific pages for Aberdeen, Peterhead, Fraserburgh, Banff and Elgin and dozens more are due to be introduced this week.
The north-east pages alone have more than 17,000 “likes” on Facebook.
It is understood Caught Drunk is preparing to extend its £50 photo bounty to all of its hundreds of branch sites.
Reverend Dr Keith Suckling, the minister at Fraserburgh’s St Peter’s Church, said he was disturbed by the news.
He said: “I think there’s a lot of concern about the way in which social media is used, and this is another manifestation.
“What worries me most about it is that there’s no sense of goodness about many of the uses of social media.
“There is a large amount of insulting behaviour on Twitter for instance, and this week there was news of teachers being intimidated by children, pupils, parents – all this is evidence of the negative use of the internet and social media.
“It reflects what is so obvious at Easter time, that being the divided state of humanity. There is so much good, but there is this negative side too.”
North-east councillor Jim Ingram added: “There are certain things happening these days that I consider to be undesirable at best.
“This should be frowned upon because there are all sorts of dangers and abuses surrounding this, including blackmail and bribery. But how do you put the genie back in the bottle?”
Despite the outcry, one legal expert said that as long as the photos uploaded to Caught Drunk pages are provided by the original photographer, it is breaking no laws.
Duncan Love, a partner at Aberdeen solicitors James and George Collie, said: “I don’t think there is any prohibition about publishing a photo you take of somebody else.
“If they are in a compromising position then you would say it’s their own fault they were that way.
“The image has been captured by the photographer and they’ve decided that’s something they want to upload. There’s not a law against that.”