1. British Board of Film Classification
(BBFC)
The ethical issue I have chosen to write about is the British board of film classification (BBFC). The
BBFC is an independent, non-governmental body. They are responsible for giving films and some
video games classifications in the UK. It’s a statutory requirement to classify videos, under the Video
Recording Act 2010. They put certain ages on films and some video games to protect children and
other vulnerable groups from being exposed to unsuitable material, there is a variety of ages they can
classify a film for example:
U ,which is suitable for all,
PG ,which is suitable for children with parental guidance,
12 ,
12A,
15,
18
They ban films if they consider them to be unsuitable even for adults to watch, they will refuse to give
it a certificate and without a certificate a film can’t be legally shown. They can’t classify material that is
in breach of the obscene publications Act 1959 and 1964, because they think it can ‘deprave and
corrupt’ the mind. Even if the film has been banned it can appeal and cuts can be suggested to make it
suitable for a certificate, but sometimes the main concepts are unacceptable or cuts would be too
extensive the work could be refused a classification at any category.
An example of the BBFC banning a film is with the human centipede 2. The BBFC banned the human
centipede 2 because of its "revolting" content,the BBFC made a report on the Full Sequence and stated
that the film's content was too extreme for an 18 certificate and was "sexually violent and potentially
obscene’, in their opinion the film was potentially in breach of the Obscene Publications Act. The
BBFC also stated that they would not reclassify the film in future, because "no amount of cuts would
allow them to give it a certificate".Banning the human centipede 2 only gave it more publicity, because
when the film was banned in the UK it wasn’t band in other countries. If someone wanted to watch it,
it was still available on the internet because it wasn’t banned all over the world. With it being on the
internet and the public knowing the film had been banned just gave the film more publicity and made
some of the public want to watch it, especially teenagers. After they made the statement over 32 cuts
were made and the film was eventually granted an 18 certificate. The human centipede 2 was seen as
Video nasty it broke almost every decency law the BBFC ever created.
"Video nasty" was a colloquial term coined in the United Kingdom by 1982 which originally applied
to a number of films distributed on video cassette that were criticized for their violent content by the
press, commentators such as Mary Whitehouse, and various religious organizations. The director of
public prosecutions (DPP) drew up a list of videos that were liable for prosecution as they believed
they would ‘deprave and corrupt’ the viewer. At one point there was 72 on the list but 39 received
prosecutions, this led to the 'Video Recordings Act of 1984’.
There is a variety of factors which effect classification, for example violence, violence against animals,
weapons, imitable techniques, sex & nudity, sexual language, sexual violence, drugs, horror, criminal
activity, language discrimination, theme and tone. Having any of these factors effects the certificate
for the film the BBFC will give, if they give one. For example; the human centipede 2 included almost
all of these factors and this affected the certificate, the BBFC believes that watching some of these can
effect and deprive the human’s brain. For example; if a child watched a violent film they would most

2. likely think that violence is right and start misbehaving and etc… This was proven with a project
someone carried out called ‘The bobo doll experiment’. It was performed in 1961 by Albert Bandura.
He believed human behaviour was learnt through imitation and copying. The experiment was to try to
show that children would copy adult role model’s behaviour, even violence behaviour. He put a child
in the room with a bobo doll and a hammer in the corner of the room, he left the child in the room on
his own and the child played with the bobo doll, he pushed it around a little but it wasn’t in such
classed as violence. Later on he put an adult in the room with the bobo doll for the child to watch, the
adult repeatedlyhit the bobo doll with the hammer. Once the woman had stopped and left the room
the child picked up the hammer and copied what the woman was doing, violently hitting the bobo doll
with the hammer. This project proven that children copy adults, which means they would most likely
copy certain factors off a films.
The BBFC are important because they regulate what the public can watch in the cinemas, they have
proven certain age groups copy what they see adults do. So if the BBFC didn’t classify films, which
included sex, violence, weapons and etc… certain people would copy their actions because it was on a
film, so they think it is right. The main ages that are most likely to copy their actions are 15 and under.
Even though it protects certain people, mainly children and teenagers, they also try to control what
adults can watch. Also a lot of people now illegally download films at home or find them on the
internet, so even if the film has been classified a certain age any age can watch them at home.