The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) is challenging children to create illustrations for a new poster showing their families and friends visiting the cinema.
The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) is challenging children to create illustrations for a new poster showing their families and friends visiting the cinema, to help remind parents, teachers and children what the five age ratings U, PG, 12A, 15 and 18 mean. The final poster will include the illustrations that best show who can go and see what films in the cinema, how old they might be and whether they might go with family or friends.
The competition marks the launch of the BBFC’s new website for children, CBBFC. The BBFC’s previous CBBFC website has been updated with a new design, making it easier to use on tablet devices as well as laptops and PC’s. The new CBBFC website also includes a section for adults, where parents of younger children can read about BBFC age ratings and find answers to frequently asked questions from other parents.
Lucy Brett, Head of Education at the BBFC said:
“Through our work with primary school children across the UK, we know they enjoy learning about age ratings and telling us what they think about how films they love have been age rated. The new CBBFC website lets them explore these ideas. It is based on the most common questions we are asked by children and their parents; ‘What can children see at what age?’; ‘How does the 12A certificate work?’ and ‘What it is like to be a BBFC Examiner?’ The new website also offers age ratings for recent film releases, including our detailed information for families and filmgoers BBFCinsight, and lets children tell us what they think through opinion polls, competitions and an activity which lets them 'examine and rate' film trailers.
Everything is designed for younger audiences to help them get to grips with age ratings. We've even rewritten our Classification Guidelines for children so they can engage with our work and understand our age ratings in the context of their own viewing, while an area for parents and teachers outlines how we work, our education programme for schools and Kids Clubs and family events.
By running the poster competition we want to encourage children to start to recognise what film ratings are suitable for what age groups and why, giving them the chance to put themselves in the picture.”
The poster competition is open to anyone under the age of 18 and runs until Friday 08 November, with the winners being announced on Monday 09 December. Prizes for the winners include a training session with a BBFC Film Examiner at their school for them and their class and a bag full of BBFC goodies. The new poster will be available free of charge to all Primary schools across the UK and become a key part of the BBFC’s education materials. In 2012 the BBFC visited over 140 schools, colleges, universities and film festivals, involving over 12,000 students of all ages and parents.
The previous CBBFC website launched in 2003 and the new website retains many of its popular activities, including rate a trailer, BBFC competitions and news about the latest kids films rated U, PG and 12A. The new CBBFC website is live at www.cbbfc.co.uk
