Age Restrictions on music videos

1. AGE RESTRICTIONS By Zoe Franklin

2. WHAT IS THE PROBLEM?
In the modern day, music videos are becoming
more accessible as a result of a proliferation in
technology with the development of smart
phones, tablets and various computers/laptops.
Consequently, younger generations are able to
access them without restrictions that would have
been set on music channels etc. This means that
the younger generations are being exposed to
explicit videos with sexual/violent/drug abusive
scenes. This is becoming a problem as it is
introducing a new life to the younger generations,
tempting them to take on the lifestyles that they
are seeing in the music videos. Additionally,
celebrities and artists more than often are
children's/teenagers idols, therefore them seeing
this explicit behaviour and/or costume will
influence them to do the same.

3. WHAT IS THE PROPOSED
SOLUTION & WHY?
In order to avoid this happening, Youtube, Vivo (for a trial) and three
of the biggest labels in the UK - Sony, Universal and Warner Brothers
- have all also agreed to take part in aiming to set age restrictions on
many of the explicit videos that artists may publish. This means that
the younger generations wont be exposed to the graphic imagery and
behaviour, hopefully avoiding them from doing the same. It is also
going to be introduced in order to advise parents on what their
children are seeing, and be able to control this;
Spokesman for Vevo, Carly von Speyr, said:
"While Vevo is a supporter of artist expression
and free speech, we do believe it is important
to inform parents and viewers about any music
video programming we distribute that may not
be suitable for all viewers.

4. ADVANTAGES:
Kids wont be exposed to explicit content such as sexual/violent/drug
abusive imagery. Which will reduce the impact of the influence on
them.
The software's showing the videos will not be scrutinized for them by
the older generations, creating an ethical business image: "Ofcom's
licensees understand their obligations under our rules; as a result we
receive relatively few complaints about music videos on TV. If
broadcasters do break the rules, we take robust action, which can
include issuing fines.“
Parents will become more comfortable and at ease with having their
children on the internet or watching the TV

5. DISADVANTAGES
The kids may become too restricted: "Why shouldn't younger people
learn and explore about what sexuality is as an adult? Why shouldn't
they do that?”
Some artists may try and make their videos even more explicit in
order to get a higher rating, as this may become a ‘cool’ thing to do –
making it even worse: "At the same time, I think giving an age rating
might actually get people to make even more provocative videos than
before as long as they get the proper rating for it.
Mercury-nominated singer FKA Twigs said: "I think that the answer to
protecting younger viewers is not to ban things, it's to show an
alternative.
The younger generations may try to rebel against this by faking
accounts or going through a different website – reducing YouTube
(Etc.) popularity.

6. LIMITATIONS OF THE SOLUTION
o Many artists may lose fans and popularity due to a decrease in
people able to watch their music videos. Which eventually reduce the
amount of profit the artist makes, making it even more difficult to
promote themselves.
o Many fans wont be able to watch their artists anymore, which may
create a bad image for YouTube and the other software's that
introduce it.
o You cant fully control what someone finds on the internet, the
younger generations are quite aware of what's on the internet and
therefore find other programmes to watch the videos to – reducing
popularity and money for youtube.

7. WILL IT MAKE A DIFFERENCE?
For some more extreme videos, I think this will make a difference as
it will limit how much the younger generations are exposed to in
terms of sexualisation, drugs and violence as this can affect how they
act outside of their homes and how they treat other people. However,
due to the wide variety, and increasing amount of, other online
sources to watch films and videos, the most likely outcome is that
Youtube will decrease in popularity as people will move to other
websites – or new websites will open after seeing a new gap in the
market.
In terms of parental care, this will help to put parents minds at ease
as the kids are less likely to be exposed to the explicit videos that
many artists release, but it doesn’t mean that they wont be able to
access any videos of such genres and themes.
It might also help to reduce the amount of explicit themes and
imagery that artists put on videos, as they will want to keep their fans
and gain more views; the more explicit they are, the less fans.
Alternatively, older or more sexualised artists may view it as an
opportunity to explore the boundaries even more, in order to gain a

8. WHICH VIDEOS WILL RECEIVE
WHAT? For the majority of pop videos, the age restrictions wont
be of much difference as the general target audience for
this genre is younger children – therefore many of these
videos will already be limited with explicit content. So,
artists such as Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift, this wont
change much for their videos, possibly even increase
popularity as parents and peers will view them as
sensible and good idols for their children.
For more older genres such as Rap and Grime, with
much older target audiences, they will most likely receive
higher age restrictions due to drug abusive and/or
sexual imagery – as this is almost becoming a
convention for the videos in order to look ‘cool’ and
compete with the other artists and/or videos.
In the modern day, videos are generally becoming more
explicit in order to appeal to fans in a more sexualised
way, especially for female artists as this can allow them
to gain a larger target market of male viewers. As a
result, many of the female artists such as Niki Minaj will
experience much higher age restrictions due to the
overly sexualisation of them and their videos. Most likely
at an 18+.
18+
Rap
Grime
‘Older’ Pop (Rihanna)
15+
Pop/Rap Pop
(Katy Perry)
Indie
U
Younger Pop (Justin
Bieber)
Children's/Educational
music

9. MY GENRE AND VIDEO
For our genre, Indie Pop, the age restriction would most likely lie between U
and 15. As, there are limitations on explicit themes and scenes, it not being
completely conventional for these videos to include such imagery. However
some videos do often include themes such as drugs and/or sexual scenes,
only at a lower level than other pop and rap artists.
For our video, we would mostly likely have it 15 as there are no explicit
themes or imagery explored. The theme of the song is relatable for all ages
so we would want to be able to reach a wide range of ages in order to gain
popularity. However, having it at a U would reduce the attraction from older
audiences as they wouldn’t want to watch a video with such a low rating.
Additionally, as the video will feature some of the urban lifestyle, this
wouldn’t be completely appropriate or interesting for extremely young ages;
therefore setting it higher will hint this and suggest to younger audiences
and parents of younger children to not watch it as they may not find it
interesting and the urban lifestyle could suggest toward drug lifestyles. Also,
we feature a lot of graffiti in the video, which we wouldn’t want to have
influence on younger audiences as they may not understand the differences