The BBFC is an independent British organization that classifies films and videos based on their content. They assign age ratings to help audiences determine if content is appropriate for them. The BBFC was established in 1912 by the film industry to uniformly classify films nationally. It has statutory powers to classify and rate videos and films shown in UK cinemas and on sale or rent. The BBFC is headed by a President and two Vice Presidents who are responsible for classifying videos. They use a rating system to provide guidance on content suitability for different age groups.

1. Who are the BBFC?
The BBFC are a company or group of people who watch movies and give their
opinion on the movie and give it an age rating based on how violent or rude
the movie is.
The British Board of Film Classification is an independent, non-governmental
body, which has classified cinema films since it was set up in 1912 and videos/
DVDs since the Video Recordings Act was passed in 1984.
Cinema
The British Board of Film Censors was set up in 1912 by the film industry as an
independent body to bring a degree of uniformity to the classification of film
nationally. Statutory powers on film remain with the local councils, which may
overrule any of the BBFC’s decisions, passing films we reject, banning films we
have passed, and even waiving cuts, instituting new ones, or altering
categories for films exhibited under their own licensing jurisdiction.
President and Vice Presidents
The BBFC has one President and two Vice Presidents. They are designated
with statutory responsibility for the classification of video works under the
Video Recordings Act 1984. The President and Vice Presidents are consulted in
the case of difficult or controversial works or ones that raise particular
questions of policy. They are appointed by the Council of Management.
12/12A are very similar however the only slight
difference is that a film must be seen with an adult if
your under the age of 12. Within a film rated 12/12A
This rating standsfor universal, which means
everyonecan watch and there’ s no
unsuitablecontent in the movie.
This rating standsfor parentalguidance,
which meansit’s suitable for children if they
are with an adult. There is a little bit of
unsuitablecontent but your parentshave a
choice to let you watch it or not.

2. can contain violent content so long as they don't glamorize the action.
Legal Acts
Obscene publications act 1969
An Act to amend the law relating to the publication of obscene matter; to
provide for the protection of literature; and to strengthen the law concerning
pornography.
Video recordings act 1964
The Video Recordings Act 1984 is an Act of the Parliament of the United
Kingdom that was passed in 1984. It states that commercial video recordings
offered for sale or for hire within the UK must carry a classification that has
been agreed upon by an authority designated by the Home Office.
Protection of children act 1999
An Act to require a list to be kept of persons considered unsuitable to work
with children; to extend the power to make regulations under section 218(6)
of the Education Reform Act 1988; to make further provision with respect to
that list and the list kept for the purposes of such regulations; to enable the
protection afforded to children to be afforded to persons suffering from
mental impairment; and for connected purposes.
This meansno one under the age of 15 can see
the movie. This would include, hard drugs, bad
language and violenceand sexual activity.
This meansno one under the age of 18 can
see this movie because it will contain strong
language, strongviolence and strong sexual
activity.

3. Banning and censorship of films in UK
Due to the video nasties this was the invention of the video recordings act in
1984. People were able to get access to horror and gore movies. This ment
that children could get access to movies even if they were above the age of
the child. Evil dead was trialed to get banned but they lost the argument
because the movie made the point that it was not offensive. Lots of movies
were banned because people believed they made children crazy murders but
that’s not true and this is why the movies were unbanned after a while. The
movie straw dogs movie was banned because of a over excessive rape scene
and this turned adults heads and this is why it was banned. Now we look back
at these movies and look at them for a laugh because they aren’t scary to
what we see now.
The descent
The descent age rating is 18 and this is very reasonable because it could not
be any lower than that due to the gore and bone breaking scenes, such as
when the girl breaks leg and the bone comes out and there is tons of
screaming also there are many scenes with gore such as necks being sliced
open. One scene that also stood out as an 18 was when the girl shoves her
fingers through the eyes and it is also a close up which makes it more
gruesome, the only way this could drop down to a 15 is if you get rid of all
those scenes or just not show it so clearly to the audience. The ethical issues
would have been if they showed when jess the daughter was killed because
it’s considered wrong to kill a child in movies. The are more reasons that it
could have been banned such as if they didn’t get the copyrights so they could
include products in their movie. The protection of children act also applies to
Jessica (little girl on set) because children are only aloud to film for 4 hours
per day because they still have to maintain a proper education.