1. Certificate Guidelines
Research

2. Certificate guidelines are designed to protect children and young adults from
unsuitable and harmful content in films and videos, by giving the audience
information a particular film or video before they decide to view it. The BBFC,
(British Board of Film Classification), examine the film and award them with
different age guidelines, based on a variety of content.
In this presentation, I am going to discuss the content which is associated with
each guideline.
These guidelines will be extremely important for my own opening film
sequence; I plan to have a low aged target audience. Due to this, I have to
ensure that my film will receive a low age rating, to ensure that my target
audience of children and young adults will all be able to view my film, therefore
helping to maximise profits.

3. U
 Stands for Universal
 Suitable for ages of 4 and over
 Only mild language (i.e. damn, hell)
 Very mild sexual content (i.e. cuddling, kissing)
 Only mild violence, such as a brief fight scene or the protagonist
being put in a dangerous situation

4. PG
 Stands for Parental Guidance
 Suitable for general viewing
 Only mild bad language, such as "s**t" or "son of a b****"
(depending on context and delivery)
 Only mild sexual content, however tends to be unlikely

5. 12 & 12A
12A means that viewers who are the age of 12 must be
accompanied by an adult
 Suitable for viewers over the age of 12
 Strong language (such as f***, depending on the manner and its
frequency)
 Sex may be briefly and discreetly portrayed throughout the film
 Discriminatory language or behaviour will not be endorsed
 Only moderate violence

6. 15
 Viewers must be over the age of 15
 Strong language (such as f****) may be included
 Portrayals of sexual activity
 Strong verbal references to sex
 Sexual nudity
 Brief scenes of sexual violence or verbal references to sexual
violence
 Discriminatory language or behaviour
 Drug/alcohol taking

7. 18
 Very strong violence
 Frequent strong language (e.g. 'f***') and / or very strong
language (e.g.‘c***’)
 Strong portrayals of sexual activity
 Scenes of sexual violence
 Strong horror
 Strong blood and gore
 Real sex (in some circumstances)
 Discriminatory language and behaviour

8. R18
 R18 is a legally restricted classification, primarily for explicit
works of sex or strong fetish material involving adults.