Following the news that the Tower of London has suspended two beefeaters as part of a harassment investigation of its first female Yeoman Moira Cameron, criminal charges have been bought against one of her tormentors for ‘inappropriate use of the internet’. Louis Halpern, CEO of digital agency Halpern Cowan and author of Personal Reputation Management, a new book which looks at how to proactively manage your online reputation, suggests that this news shows us why it is time to wake up to the significance of Wikipedia, and why we all must be more proactive in monitoring our online presence.

Since its creation in 2001, Wikipedia has grown into one of the largest reference websites in the world, attracting at least 65 million visitors a month in 2009 according to the site itself. Its spread and influence is huge, and as a result there have had to be some considerations for users and the site’s communities along the way.

The biggest issue for Wikipedia however lies in its biggest strength, which is also its greatest weakness, anyone is able to edit its content as they see fit. The Wikimedia Foundation project Wikiversity, which supports learning communities, explains this best when it says, “Wikipedia’s radical openness means that any given article may be, at any given moment, in a bad state: for example it could be in the middle of a large edit or it could have been recently vandalised.” As a result, there is opportunity for people like Moira Cameron’s colleagues to go onto the service and post unscrupulous insertions about any individual or company they see fit.

Wikipedia has a group of dedicated editors to review posts and remove or edit them if they believe the content to be untrue, but on occasions such as this posts can sometimes slip through the web unnoticed. Also, Wikipedia keeps a complete history of all edits made to a page online, meaning that past content which has since been amended or wiped can still be viewed by anyone accessing the site. In turn, this means some individuals can attempt to cover up and remove past misdemeanours from their page, as seen by the flurry of activity on Nick Griffin’s page before his question time appearance, where some of his past radical views where simply dismissed by saying “He no longer holds these opinions.” These claims have since been removed from the site.

In turn, there are now legal implications for anyone posting inappropriate content to sites such as Wikipedia, as Scotland Yard yesterday demonstrated when they confirmed that a “56-year-old man received a caution under the Communications Act 2003 following an investigation by officers from Tower Hamlets. It related to inappropriate use of the internet.” We can certainly expect to see this trend continue and the internet remain at the heart of future harassment, slander and other criminal cases that affect personal reputation.

If internet users are more literate digitally they will be better equipped to protect themselves online. Ignorance is no longer an excuse. In an internet age, personal brands are never off limits and are always available to see.

Employers and government need to be doing more to improve understanding of the potential impact the internet can have and how individuals may be profiled on it, helping them to take control of their reputation online. The most important considerations for individuals remain:

1. Be proactive – Check your profiles online regularly and ensure the content on it is positioning you in a way you want to be positioned

2. Have a base – Create a personal home page (blog or even a basic website) and set up official social media accounts across the major platforms that link into that base, making sure the content across all of them is accurate and true

3. Report inaccuracy – If someone has posted untrue or slanderous comment about you to an online site, contact the service’s administrators and encourage your circle of influence to post comment supporting your position

Wikipedia’s community of editors and the Wikipedia foundation are ultimately responsible for the content that is posted to the platform, but if you are reading and using the site then you should be contributing to posts to ensure the content that appears is fair and true. Social media is about being responsible for and engaging with your network, whilst the same is true for your personal reputation. By being proactive and taking charge of your online presence, you can effectively manage your reputation online for the better.

Louis is CEO of digital agency Halpern Cowan