Cherished Number Plates News

WTF is that on my Number Plate?

01 October 2008

Over 10,000 vehicle licence plates have been recalled by law officials at the North Carolina DMV, after they were found to contain "offensive" common text and internet messaging acronyms mainly used by younger generations.

Mary Ann Hardee, 60, uncovered the issue when she noticed her grand children laughing at her "WTF" number plates. It was issued last year as one of around 240 different letter combinations used on more than two million plates. Mrs Hardee contracted officials, and has been provided with a new plate free of charge by the DMV commisioner, after complaining that it had made her feel self conscious while driving on the road. Over 10,000 further plates have also been recalled, including plates bearing the letters XXX, NME and LOL.

The DMV and UK DVLA has always been concerned with keeping offensive words from our number plates, but the rise of text and internet messaging "speak", which relies heavily on acronyms in place of commonly used (and often quite offensive) phrases, has made this job much more difficult. The DMV has come up with a novel solution by partnering with a text message dictionary netlingo.com to make sure they don't issue any more embarrassing plates to unsuspecting drivers.