1. BBFC Age Rating
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By Alex Craven

2. BBFC Guidelines
It is important that the BBFC’s classification standards are in line with what the
public expects and that its decisions take account of what the public finds
acceptable at each age category.
Therefore every 4-5 years, the BBFC carries out a major public consultation
exercise to find out what the public thinks about the age rating of films and
videos before they are released and whether the BBFC’s classification standards
meet public concerns.
The BBFC adjusts its standards and criteria in response to any changes in public
attitudes.
These standards are laid out in the BBFC’s Classification Guidelines which can be
downloaded below. The Guidelines detail what is acceptable at each age category,
from U to R18. They also set out the laws and principles which impact on the
BBFC’s work.
There are two key principles, laid out in the Guidelines, under which we operate:
 to protect children and vulnerable adults from potentially harmful or
otherwise unsuitable content
 to empower consumers, particularly parents and those with responsibility for
children, to make informed viewing decisions.

3. What you could expect to
see…
What might I see in a 15 rated film?
 strong violence
 frequent strong language (e.g.
'f***').
 portrayals of sexual activity
 strong verbal references to sex
 sexual nudity
 brief scenes of sexual violence or
verbal references to sexual violence
 discriminatory language or
behaviour
 drug taking
What might I see in a 18 rated film?
18 works are for adults and can contain
strong issues such as:
very strong violence
frequent strong language (e.g. 'f***') and /
or very strong language (e.g. ‘c***’)
strong portrayals of sexual activity
scenes of sexual violence
strong horror
strong blood and gore
real sex (in some circumstances)
discriminatory language and behaviour

4. Age ratings for
psychological Thrillers
Se7en – 18
Sixth Sense – 15
Inception – 12a
Memento – 15
Black Swan – 15
Having looked at the thriller age ratings, they are generally about 15 or
18, although, one or two are a 12a. Therefore as a group we have
decided to make our film a 15 rating. This is because it may include
some strong violence and drug taking or anything along these lines. The
reasons it’s a 15 and not a 12 because you may expect to see more
explicit language than in a 12 rating. Therefore it is going to be a 15 as
we think it is the best for our film.