The Act was passed in 1984 following public outcry over the unregulated availability of so called 'video nasties'. The Act came into force on 1 September 1985 for all new releases which had not been supplied or offered for supply in the UK before that date. For videos already on the shelves, classification was phased in over the next three years. The VRA applies to works in any language, including untranslated works in a language other than English. The only exceptions are certain kinds of works which the VRA allows to be exempt from the general classification requirement.