2. WHAT WAS THE BBFC
The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) before was known as British Board of
Film Censors. It was established in 1912 as the British Board of Film Censors by the
members of the film industry, who world prefer to manage their own censorship than
have national or local governments to do it for them. It began starting on the 1st of
January 1913. Its legal basis was the Cinematography Act 1909. This is the act of the
Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was the first primary legislation in the UK which
specifically regulated the film industry. It was well known for having untentionally
provided of legal basis of film censorship, leading to the establishment of the British
Board of Film Censors. The act was introduced to for mainly safety reasons after a
number of ‘nitrate films’ fired in unsuitable environments. Given that the law will not
let councils to grant or refuse licences to cinemas according to the content of the
films they have showed, the 1909 act therefore has enabled the introduction of
censorship. The film industry fears the economics consequences of a largely
unregulated censorship infrastructure, so therefore formed the (BBFC ) to carry on to
take leadership and establish its own system of self regulation. Some decisions from
the early years are now subjected to derision.
3. WHAT IS THE BBFC TODAY
The British Board of Film classification is now a non governmental organisation which was
founded by the film industry in 1912 and is responsible for the national classification and
censorship of films within the United Kingdom. It has a statutory requirement to classify
videos, DVD’s and to a lesser extent some video games under the Video Recordings Act
2010. However Statutory power on films will remain with the local councils which may
overrule any of the BBFC’S decisions that have gone by passing films they reject they have
said. They are a non profit organisation and its fees are adjusted only to cover its costs. In
order to preserve its independence the BBFC never received subsides from either the film
industry or the government. Its income is solely from the fees it charges for its services,
calculated by measuring the running time of films or DVD’s submitted for classification.
The BBFC consults the Department of Culture, Media and Sport before making any
changes to its fees.
THEIR MISSION
• Protect the public and especially children, from content which may raise harm and risks.
• Empower the public, especially parents to make informed viewing choices .
• Recognise and respect adult freedom of choice within the law.
• Respond and reflect changing social attitudes towards media content through proactive
public consultation and research.
• Provide a cost effective, efficient classification service within our statutory remit.
• Work as a partnership with the industry to develop innovative service models to provide
content advice which supports emerging media delivery systems.
4. FUTURE FOR THE BBFC
The BBFC claim to be adapting to meet demands of the online world. Since 2008 the
BBFC have been making an attempt to provide suitable contents labelling systems
for films and video content supplied via the internet. As part of this initiative, they
created a new ‘watch and rate’ system specifically for straight to online content
where content can be voluntarily be submitted by individuals for rating. At least
fifteen online platforms and e-trailers already use the system and they pay a
licensing fee to the BBFC so that all of their content has a BBFC certificate. Most who
are using the system are not streaming/selling straight to online content and have
previously received a BBFC certificate for cinema or dvd release. The only selling
point the BBFC seem to offer for this service is ‘peace of mind’ for platforms owners
that their content is legal and holds trusted ratings. But there has been a
proliferation of pro summer content on online community sites such as YouTube.
There has been and perhaps will continue to be a dramatic shift in consuming habits
and a change in the media forms that are being demanded (short home made videos
rather than just features or TV programmes). The BBFC claim : ‘90% of parents wish
to see the BBFC’s symbols on film downloads.’
