Regulations in the media-Film Classifications

Who does it?

The British Board of film Classification (BBFC) are responsible for the classifying of films. The BBFC are funded by the film industry and are a non-governmental organisation.

What do they do?

The BBFC is an organisation that classifies films and some video games before they are released. Since 2010 it has been a statutory requirement to classify all videos. The classifications are set mainly to filter what is seen by younger people.

Banning films

A film will be banned if the BBFC believe that the footage is inappropriate to be viewed even by adults or if it breeches the obscene publications acts of 1959 & 1964. If the BBFC do decide to ban a film the film can appeal with suggestions of how the film can be deemed acceptable for a certificate.

Video recording act of 1984

The video recording act began when the director of public prosecutions made a list of 72 films that he believed would ‘deprave or corrupt’ the viewer; only 39 of the films received prosecutions.

What is considered?

When classifying a film the BBFC will consider these things-violence -weapons-sexual language -nudity-drugs-horror-discrimination-criminal activity

Human Centipede 2

In June 2011 the film Human Centipede 2 failed to meet the requirements to gain a classification. In October 2011 after 2 minutes and 37 seconds of cuts were made the film was granted certificate 18.

Bobo Doll experiment

In 1961 Albert Bandura used children to prove his belief that behaviour they see has an effect on their own behaviour. The studies proved that when subjected to the viewing of violent behaviour children are more likely to be violent themselves suggesting that Albert Banduras theory was correct.