Norwich has been chosen to be the first of a series of pilots for a new film classification category. The BBFC would like to know what the public thinks of changing the current ‘12’ category, which excludes children under the age of 12 from seeing the film at the cinema, to PG-12. PG-12 would mean that parents or guardians could decide that children younger than 12 will be able to see a film with that rating.
The Norwich pilot will run from 26 October to 13 December. During this period all films which are ‘12’ rated in the rest of the country will be rated PG-12 in all of the cinemas in Norwich and will be open to children younger than 12, but only if accompanied by a responsible adult. Children of 12 and over will still be able to go to the cinema without an adult, as usual.
During the pilot period the BBFC will be carrying out public opinion polling in and around the city’s cinemas. As well as asking people whether the ‘12’ rating should change to PG-12 they will be asked whether the rating should require an adult to accompany children under 12.
Robin Duval, Director of the BBFC said:
“Changing the mandatory ‘12’ rating to an advisory PG-12 would be a significant step and we need to find out if the public supports it or not. Providing parents with the opportunity to try out the proposed new category should enable them to judge for us whether it would be a worthwhile change. We will be carrying out further pilots in selected towns and cities throughout the UK and only when we have the results of all the public opinion polling will we come to a decision about whether to change the ‘12’ rating.
“The BBFC recognises that parents will need more information about the content of the films they may wish to take their children to see and I am delighted to say that the film distributors have given their full backing to the provision of ‘consumer advice’ on film posters. In Norwich all ‘U’, ‘PG’ and ‘PG-12’ film posters will carry a panel which explains what the film category is, what that means and a short sentence giving information about the content of the film.
“I would particularly like to thank Norwich City Council and the city’s cinemas for their full and enthusiastic support for this exercise. Without it the pilot could not go ahead. We think it is particularly important that as many people as possible have an opportunity to take part in the decision making process.”
Chair of Norwich City Council Regulatory Committee, Councillor Brenda Ferris said:
"The City Council is very pleased that Norwich has been chosen as the country's first city to pilot a scheme for an advisory 12 certificate. This not only reflects the importance of our city as a cultural centre but also provides an opportunity for Norwich movie goers to take part in this important research".
The four participating cinemas are UCI, Ster City, Hollywood Cinema and Cinema City.
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