The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) is an independent non-profit organization established in 1912 to classify films shown in British cinemas. It has classified both films and videos since the Video Recordings Act of 1984. The BBFC aims to provide uniform classification nationally while allowing for local council overrides. It charges fees to review and classify films and videos based on their content and potential effects on audiences. The BBFC must apply and consider various British acts regarding obscenity, child protection, and video content when making classification decisions.

1. What the BBFC is –
Originally set up in the 1912’s, the ‘British Board of Film Classification’ is an
independent corporation, which has no correlation with the government as to
ensure that their opinions and choices are not biased or altered by governmental
bodies. It has been classifying cinema films and videos alike since the passing of
the Video Recordings Act of 1984, and has been doing so as a non-profitable
organisation.
Cinema:
In terms of cinema, the BBFC was formed to bring ‘uniformity to classifications of
film nationally’, however local councils are able to overrule their set decisions.
Such decisions include banning movies the BBFC has passed and vice versa, to
the point where they are able to issue cuts to certain movies or change
categories for films.
Video:
Likewise, the BBFC must also certify video recordings that have the intention to
be sold commercially throughout the United Kingdom, as is stated in the Video
Recordings Act of 1984. This act ensured that videos, such as DVD’s, were
officially certified by the BBFC to be viewed freely by audiences in their own
homes, a job given to both president and vice president of the corporation.
Finance:
As mentioned previously, the BBFC is a non-profit organisation, which runs off
the fees they charge for their services, in which they calculate running times of
films sent in by producers that want their products certified. The organisation
may also visit the sets during the movie’s production to overlook certain scenes
or make changes to the overall script, but once again they charge considerably
more to do so. Said fees are used to cover the corporation’s own costs, and they
can only change the value of the fees once they have consulted the Department of
Culture, Media and Sport.
Certificates –
Standing for ‘Universal’, this certificate is given to films that
are suitable for peoples of four years old and above. Since it is
virtually impossible to categorise something for each child
independently, this is a general certificate.
Standing for ‘Parental Guidance’, this means that the product is
suitable for general viewing, although it may contain scenes
that are no suitable for children under the age of eight. Parents
may consider whether the content is suitable for their child.
The cinema version of the 12 certificate, it means parents must
be present for a child who is under 12 years old. This
certificate allows parents to decide whether it is suitable for
their child.

2. The DVD version of the 12A certificate, this is more for
retailers who are selling said DVD’s. It means that they are not
able to sell the product unless the buyer is 12 years or older.
This means that peoples younger than 15 years old are not
allowed to view the content. 15 rated movies usually contain;
strong violence, portrayals of sexual activity, sexual nudity,
drug taking etc.
This certificate means that audiences must be 18 (adults).
Works certified 18 usually contain very strong violence, strong
portrayals of sexual activity, strong horror, real sex,
discriminatory language and behaviour etc.
This certificate is specific to legally restricted content
involving consenting sex or strong fetish material, involving
adults. Any material with this rating is not to be supplied
through mail. Many of these products are mostly sold at
licensed sex shops.
Legal Acts –
The BBFC must apply various acts within their work, said acts include;
Obscene Publication Act of 1959:
The act that gives the organisation its power. It means that it is an offence to
publish any information or content, which will corrupt or deprave any audiences
that may read, hear or see said material. Henceforth, it is a law that the BBFC
must abide whenever they carry out their work and certifications.
Video Recordings Act of 1984:
One of the more important acts, it states that any video recordings that are being
sold within the United Kingdom must have a classification that has to be agreed
upon by any authority designated by the Home Office. This law can be seen
applied to certain works such as Grotesque and one of the more controversial
games, Manhunt 2. This is mainly due to the power DVD’s give to viewers, as they
are able to rewind and pause however many times they want, meaning it could
become problematic if somebody with mental problems watches a death scene
over and over again.
Protection of Children Act 1978:
This act ensures that there is no distribution, showing or advertisement of
indecent images of ‘children under the age of 16 years old’. However, it is mostly
to prohibit said content from having certain effects on the viewers rather than
the younger audiences. Hence, the act was formed to prevent the exploitation of
children for indecent purposes.

3. Censorship:
The BBFC has had to ban a variety of movies, whether it was because of glorified
violent actions or some other demented portrayal of crimes. During the 1980’s,
the corporation played a huge part in the banning of the so-called ‘video nasties’
which included a variety of VHS movies such as ‘Cannibal Holocaust’ which was
banned for the belief that it was a snuff film (later officially released in 2001),
‘The Exorcist’ which was banned due to the video nasty crisis (later officially
released in 1999), ‘Faces of Death’ which was banned for explicit gore (later
officially released 2003) etc. This caused a lot of movies to be confiscated by the
police during this crisis, meaning many stores were raided. Certain movies
however failed to be banned, such as Evil Dead, though it was postponed and
later released in 1990. Led by Mary Whitehouse’s extreme views towards violent
horror movies, the main cause for this event was because many believed that
said video nasties were very influential to children and youngsters, especially as
it gave viewers the freedom to control the movie, in the sense that they could
rewind and pause at certain scenes that could be problematic. Therefore, this
panic led to the passing of the Video Recordings Act, so as to add certificates to
movies as a form of stopping younger audiences from obtaining stated movies.
Although the craze did eventually end, very disturbing movies such as
‘Grotesque’ which was banned due to the high level of sexual torture although it
is available in Japan (still banned to this day), and ‘The Human Centipede 2’
which was banned due to highly explicit sexual violence (later released with 32
cuts) are still being banned.
The Descent’s Certificate:
Given a 18 age rating certificate by the BBFC, the Descent depicts a variety of
brutal and violent acts which caused it to become 18 rated rather than 15.
Despite it’s rating, the movie was passed completely uncut although it was
considered strong with bloody horror, such as scenes where characters’ throats
are ripped open or where the camera focuses on a broken limb in which the bone
can be seen, making scenes like these unlikely to be accepted by censors. The
movie does also contain some questionable scenes that although do not involve
the law in any way, they do cause some concern in viewers. Said scene contains
the death of two people in which they are killed by copper pipes flying into their
heads after a car crash. Although we do see that one of the people, an adult,
clearly had a pipe through their head, the other person, who is a child, is never
shown with the pipe through her as a form to remove any uproar that the
audience might have against such scenery. As mentioned previously within the
legal acts section, there are rights protecting children from indecent acts known
as the Protection of Children Act 1978, as is avoided in Jessica’s death scene near
the start of the movie. Also included within this law, Jessica’s actress Molly Kayll
legally is only able to work for 4 hours a day, as well as being expected to
complete a normal day’s worth of school. Finally, during the production of the
movie, there is no doubt that there would have occurred certain legal issues such
as copyright meaning they would have to also obtain the rights to certain
products featured within the movie, as is the case with the popular car brand
Ranger Rover, which is utilised and clearly advertised during one of the scenes.
Likewise, music also requires legal procedures to take place previous to certain
copyright tracks being utilised. However, since the director did have the rights to

4. the soundtrack used within the movie, there were no issues and they did not
have to pay any royalty fees or face any other consequences/issues associated
with breaking copyright laws.