Photo used under a Creative Commons license with gotgenes.

The topic of Virginia’s license plates is hardly new to us — whether they’re expressing opinions on sexual preferences, voting rights or a radical political philosophy, we’re always marveling at the Commonwealth’s bevy of personalization options, which often foster an impressive, if character-limited, verbosity. But based on one man’s story, Virginia is only cool with collecting revenue via thousands of personalized plates if they can also be the arbiter of what is and isn’t offensive.

According to WTOP, the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles has taken away a Virginia man’s “Kids First” vanity plates, which he personalized with the six-letter tag of “EATTHE.” Yes, the plate read “EAT THE KIDS FIRST.” The DMV apparently decided that the “plate advocated performing oral sex on children,” rather than just, you know, being an homage to a not-trivial internet meme that’s been around for years. Based on the plate owner’s side of the story, which first surfaced on Reddit, he “got [the plate] purely as a joke” and claims that “People would ask to take pictures and I would let them.”