The public has told the BBFC that the Board’s Guidelines for classifying films and videos should be more relaxed in the ‘18’ category, but that the Board should be tougher on violence, drug portrayal and bad language at the lower classification levels.
Publishing newGuidelines for the classification of all films and videos today, Andreas Whittam Smith, President of the BBFC said:
“After an extensive consultation and research exercise, involving two Citizens’ Juries, a national survey, ten public presentations and hundreds of submissions from public groups and individuals, the Board has produced a new set of Guidelines for the classification of all films and videos. We were determined to get as clear a picture as possible of what the public thinks about the portrayal of sex, violence, drugs and bad language in films and videos. I am pleased to say that these new Guidelines reflect that.”
Director of the BBFC Robin Duval said:
“What was very clear from the consultation - which involved over 3,000 people from all demographic groups and from right across the UK - was that adults want to choose what they watch without excessive intervention by the Board. The new ‘18’ Guidelines mean that the Board will only intervene on the rare occasion where a film promotes violent or dangerous activities, gives instructive detail of illegal drugs use, or contains particularly explicit sexual images.
“What also came across very clearly was that the present classification system was overwhelmingly accepted as a useful guide when deciding what to watch, and was particularly important in terms of protecting children from seeing inappropriate material. But, while the majority of the public felt we should interfere less in the adult category, they also thought we could be more restrictive in the ‘U’, ‘PG’ and ‘12’ categories on violence, drugs and bad language. When it came to the ‘15’ category, they felt we could be more relaxed about the portrayal of sex, but with the emphasis on responsible, loving and developing relationships.
“We have taken particular note of the general concern expressed about the portrayal of drugs and drug taking, particularly at the lower categories. We have spelt out, for the first time, that ‘U’ films and videos should have no reference of any sort to drugs and have strengthened the restrictions at ‘PG’, ‘12’ and ‘15’.
“People will notice that we have dropped the list of examples of bad language which the old Guidelines contained. One reason for this is because there is so much disagreement around the country and at different age levels about what is offensive. However, we will be stricter on the use of expletives with a religious association. At the younger end of the scale, the language constraints have been tightened at ‘U’ and ‘PG’ and there will no longer be any automatic acceptance of the use of the ‘F’ word at ‘12’. In addition the standard at ‘15’ has been tightened with the strongest terms being ‘only rarely acceptable’.
“Even though the public has - perhaps surprisingly - only limited concern about the levels of violence permitted by the Guidelines as a whole, there were still worries about children watching violent films. The Board has therefore made adjustments at the lower categories and given much greater prominence to concern about imitable techniques at all levels.
“While the great majority of the public wants the Board’s classification system to remain mandatory, they also want more detailed information about the content of films and videos to help them decide what they, and their children, should watch. The Board anticipates that with the pace of development in the new electronic media the emphasis on the provision of consumer information as an alternative to regulation will inevitably increase. The Board currently provides consumer advice about the subject matter of the film or video to distributors as a matter of course, but it is their decision whether or not to include the information in the publicity or packaging. The video companies at present make rather more use of it than the film exhibitors and distributors. We are prepared to increase the amount of information we provide and we will be talking to the local authorities, as the bodies responsible for licensing cinemas, as well as to the cinema exhibitors and the distributors to see if we can encourage them to carry more advice about their films.”
Andreas Whittam Smith concluded:
“Neither the BBFC nor any other regulatory organisation has ever embarked on this level of public consultation and research before and it reflects the importance placed on getting the Guidelines right. As well as using the more traditional national survey approach, the Board used the latest in research techniques - Citizens’ Juries. The two Juries gave the Guidelines a very thorough scrutiny over more than four days, and their views have played a significant part in the shaping of the new Guidelines. In addition we have taken into account a very wide range of opinion from committed libertarians to those who would impose the most severe restrictions. We have given particular attention to the views of our own Advisory Panel on Children’s Viewing. I believe the new Guidelines represent the views of the great majority of the people in this country. However, we will continue to monitor the public’sreactions to the changes at every category level.
“While the public gave a clear steer that the classification system should remain mandatory the ‘12’ category can be problematic, with children on either side of that age developing at very different rates. The Board feels that it would therefore be useful to explore whether the ‘12’ category should become advisory, thus allowing parents to decide whether younger children should be able to see a ‘12’ film. Were this to happen, information about the film or video content would have to be sufficient to allow parents to make informed decisions. The revolution in communication technology may mean over time that content regulators will have to rely more on information and advice than on intervention.”
September14th 2000 Click here to download the guidelines
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