Are movie rat­ings still rel­e­vant in the dig­i­tal age?

In a world where movies can be viewed at the tap of a fin­ger, film reg­u­la­tors are broad­en­ing their scope. The British Board of Film Clas­si­fi­ca­tion (BBFC) is a non-gov­ern­men­tal organ­i­sa­tion, pri­mar­i­ly respon­si­ble for the nation­al clas­si­fi­ca­tion and cen­sor­ship of films exhib­it­ed at cin­e­mas. Today, it pub­lished its Annu­al Report, which includes detail on pub­lic feed­back about film age rat­ings and the job of apply­ing age rat­ings to films and TV series on VOD platforms.

Online exhi­bi­tion plat­forms have become ubiq­ui­tous, and par­ents are keen to ensure that their con­tent is clas­si­fied. BBFC Chief Exec­u­tive David Austin explains: ​“In 2015 we saw our range of ser­vices con­tin­ue to diver­si­fy, reflect­ing pub­lic expec­ta­tion for the same trust­ed guid­ance avail­able for film and DVD/Blu-ray, to be sim­i­lar­ly avail­able online.” BBFC sta­tis­tics reflect an increased demand for age rat­ings on VOD con­tent and greater pro­tec­tion using mobile phones. Accord­ing to the report, last year 85 per cent of par­ents said it was impor­tant to have con­sis­tent clas­si­fi­ca­tions both online and offline, while three quar­ters of par­ents want to link parental con­trols to clas­si­fi­ca­tions, and for more plat­forms to car­ry age rat­ings and con­tent advice.

The BBFC has respond­ed to these demands by work­ing close­ly with the dig­i­tal home enter­tain­ment indus­try to bring more age rat­ings to VOD plat­forms. Take the Ellie Gould­ing song ​‘Love Me Like You Do’ from the Fifty Shades of Grey sound­track. The video, which con­tains sev­er­al excerpts from the erot­ic film, was rat­ed 15 for ​“strong sex ref­er­ences”. Mean­while, the BBFC has entered into a new part­ner­ship with mobile net­work oper­a­tor EE, devel­op­ing a ​‘Strict’ set­ting based on their own PG rat­ing. This gives par­ents peace of mind that the mobile device they give their child is safe and that pro­tec­tions are in place to help pre­vent them see­ing unsuit­able content.

But reg­u­lat­ing the inter­net is tricky. In the real world, a movie the­atre atten­dant can eas­i­ly spot if a school kid is try­ing to get into an 18 cer­tifi­cate film. Online locks may work with younger chil­dren who are will­ing to heed their par­ents’ warn­ings, but curi­ous, inter­net-savvy chil­dren will find ways to get around them, be it through incog­ni­to brows­er win­dows or oth­er user pro­files. In this instance, film clas­si­fi­ca­tion becomes less rel­e­vant and more symbolic.

Clear­ly par­ents can no longer rely mere­ly on locks and clas­si­fi­ca­tions to pro­tect their kids. It is up to them to decide whether to open up a mature dia­logue about the adult issues and themes that con­tribute to a film receiv­ing a high­er rat­ing. Young peo­ple are a lot smarter than they’re often give them cred­it for, and it is only through thought­ful engage­ment with issues of sex, vio­lence, misog­y­ny and racism that the next gen­er­a­tion will grow up to become con­sid­er­ate, respect­ful and tol­er­ant adults.