It is important for the BBFC to correct recent inaccurate stories in the press. The Board has never relaxed its guidelines on video violence, which remain the strictest in the world, as reported to Parliament by the former Home Secretary, Michael Howard, in 1994. If anything, standards on violence have become stricter every year since the passing of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994.
Nor does the Home Office-backed research by Kevin Browne of Birmingham University criticise BBFC violence policy. Instead it confirms and amplifies the Board's views about the way screen violence is interpreted by young offenders, particularly those with a violent family background. This research was conceived by the BBFC, who recommended it to the Home Office in 1994. Its findings endorse BBFC policy on the censoring of violence inflicted by macho heroes like Schwarzenegger, Stallone, Seagal and Van Damme, who are more successfully violent than their opponents and thus provide a dangerous role model for young offenders. The problem with such videos is that, by demonstrating that violence wins, they validate the violent impulses that land so many young offenders before the courts.
The author of the research, Kevin Browne, is willing to confirm that the report he submitted to the Home Office is in no way critical of the BBFC. Indeed, the only criticism arising from the research is directed at those who permit '18' rated videos to be shown to younger teenagers. It follows that those in charge of Young Offender Institutes should now require staff to observe the minimum ages laid down by the BBFC categories.
On a wider issue, the BBFC has never passed any video it believes to have been illegal, and certainly none which would have been liable to prosecution by the Crown Prosecution Service. There has recently been a debate over standards applicable to 'R18' videos, which may be supplied only in Britain's 60 or so licensed sex shops and not through mail order. The debate arose from the differences in criteria applied by the various enforcement agencies. Detailed consultations are now under way to resolve these differences in interpretation.
JAMES FERMAN
DIRECTOR