Alt tags reveal what is on the Daily Mail's mind about child sex offenders

Alt tags on images can often reveal what is going on in the minds of the people building a website. Designed to assist accessibility, most browsers display the contents of the tag as placeholder text whilst an image is loading.

And since here in Greece I generally view the internet through 28.8Kbps spectacles, I tend to see this more than most.

The Daily Mail has had a wonderful example during today in the promotional strip for their 'Femail' articles which runs down the right-hand side of their homepage.

It features articles about Keira Knightly, Britney Spears, Amy Winehouse and at various times of the day either Kelly Brook or Dawn French.

Each of their pictures is carefully alt-tagged, mostly suggesting that readers will be on first name terms with them, as before loading they are labelled Keira, Britney, Amy and so forth.

There is another story in the Femail promotional column today though:

"How could this respectable career woman join a brutal sex ring abusing children?
An ex-convent girl, married to a teacher, this woman joined her secret lover - a retired Army officer - in a brutal sex ring abusing young children. Here, we reveal the making of two middle-class monsters"

The article tells the story of Monica McCanch and Archibald Wood, and their involvement with internet fuelled sex crimes against children.

And the alt-tag applied to the picture of Monica McCanch by a journalist, sub-editor, or web editor of the newspaper on the Daily Mail homepage?

"thingy"

Posted by Martin Belam, August 13, 2007    
Read the latest posts on currybetdotnet about: Accessibility, Daily Mail
The views expressed on currybetdotnet are my own, and do not reflect the views of Guardian News and Media Limited, or any current or former clients or employers.

 Get free updates via RSS       Get free updates by email       Follow Martin Belam on Twitter