The document discusses the BBFC age rating system for films in the UK. It focuses on the 15 and 18 ratings which are most associated with thriller genre films. The 15 rating allows for strong language, violence, and depictions of sexual activity as long as they are not gratuitous or encouraged. An 18 rating contains very strong language, violence, sexual content and may portray such things in a positive light. The author explains how understanding these ratings can help identify an appropriate target audience for a film teaser trailer they are creating about a protagonist cursed by the devil. While age ratings provide guidance, they acknowledge they do not fully prevent people from watching inappropriate content online.

1. BBFC
Jack Cooper

2. Introduction
Films are age rated to theoretically protect younger
audiences from seeing adult-aimed films. An age rating is
also a good suggestion to the media consumer about what
the film contains inside. This allows the active media
consumer to make their own choice as to whether the film
would be suitable for them and their children.
Age ratings include UC, U, PG, 12A, 12, 15 and 18. The
two age ratings I will be focusing on today is 15 and 18 as
these are most associated with thriller genre films.

3. ‘15’ age rating
If a film is certified with a ‘15’ age certificate, nobody under the age of
15 can rent or watch that particular film. 15 certified films are not aimed
for children under the age of 15 and therefore would be unsuitable for
them. There are no absolute limits, other than the film must be suitable
for a 15 year old to watch.
In a ’15’ rated film, you may encounter strong violence, frequent strong
language, 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 and drug taking.
With strong language, the most offensive words are often not used
excessively, but other forms of strong language may be heard
throughout. Violence and drug taking may be featured as a main
theme, but it is never encouraged to the viewer.
For example, Psycho is rated a ‘15’ due to its portrayal of sexual
activity, suggestive (but not shown) nudity, and strong violence. It was
not rated an 18 because there is no full nudity, the sexual scenes are
covered and more suggestive and the violent scenes are often covered
by clever camera and editing work.

4. How does this help me identify a target
audience?
The 15 guideline would be helpful for me and my group
with our teaser trailer, as it helps us choose what content to
include if we decide to aim for an adult-orientated
audience. If we decide to stick to a 15 rating, I now know
that we would have to have control on how much offensive
language we use in the trailer, and avoid using the most
offensive words if they are not strictly needed. We should
also never glamourise violence or drug usage in our trailer,
though we are not restricted from using it as a main theme.
This is helpful for me because my target audience for our
teaser trailer will hopefully be 15 and over, due to the
spiritual nature and dark themes of the Devil applying a
curse to the main protagonist.

5. ‘18’ age rating
An 18 rated film is a film that is not aimed for anyone under the age of 18.
It may contain scenes or actions that may affect children in various ways
including strong language, full nudity and suggestive gory violence.
Therefore, an 18 rated film is unsuitable for anyone except adults.
If you watch an ’18’ certified film, you can expect it to contain 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 situations) and
discriminatory language and behaviour.
Generally, there is no limit as to how often strong language is used, even
the very strong language. Violence in some 18 rated trailers could be
portrayed as a good thing, as well as sexual violence and discrimination. It
is therefore suggestive that a passive who are vulnerable to the
hypodermic needle theory audience may not want to watch an ‘18’ certified
trailer.
For example, L.A. Confidential is rated 18 because it features a strong
sexual theme (a main character is a prostitute), there is gory violence
featuring a gunshot, and a pile of very bloody bodies in the bathroom.
There is also constant use of very strong language.

6. How does this help me identify a target
audience?
The 18 guideline may be helpful for me and my group
because it will tell us what not to do and what boundaries
not to cross when making our teaser trailer. This is because
we intend to make our teaser trailer suitable for 15 year
olds upwards rather than just adults. Learning about the 18
guideline has taught me that suggestive violence and
exploitation of sexual activity should not be something
that’s included in our trailer. It means that the bad deeds
the Devil orders our protagonist to do should be censored
to at least a small extent. We should also not go over the
top with very strong language, as this may be suitable for
over 18s, but certainly not for 15-year-olds.

7. Conclusion
I think this age guideline from BBFC is a good reference to
people as to whether the film is suitable for them or not,
especially adults with children. They can buy a ‘U’ rated film safe
in the knowledge that it will not contain anything unsuitable.
However, I do think that the BBFC’s age rating doesn’t fully work.
Firstly, there are a lot of active media consumers out there – if
they want to see a film, they will ignore the age rating and simply
watch it. Also, although age ratings help in cinemas, they do not
work on internet streaming movies (something that’s very
common now). There’s nothing to stop a 5-year-old watching an
18 on the internet.
Overall, I still think it’s good to have this age ratings, but they
have now become much more of a guidance rather than a rule
these days. It would perhaps be good for the BBFC to come up
with a new modern system that will apply to the internet era.