The BBFC classifies films in the UK based on their age ratings. Films featuring violence, nudity or other mature content receive higher age ratings like 18, while family friendly films are rated U. The BBFC was established in 1912 and uses universal symbols to easily convey a film's rating. OFCOM regulates television broadcasting in the UK and ensures programs adhere to its codes on harmful or offensive content, like restricting violence before the watershed. The watershed at 9pm aims to separate more adult content from programming for children.

1. Task 3 - Unit 8
Daniel Finlay

2. The British Board of Film Classification {BBFC} - Daniel
The BBFC is a British based film regulation service that watches newly
released films and classifies them on age rating depending on whether or not
they include certain types of material, such as drug use, gun use, violence,
and much more. This helps inform the audience and public who wish to watch
the film on what the rating of the film will be, what the film will include, and
who it’s suitable for. The BBFC was established as far back as 1912, and has
universal symbols which allow the public to instantly know the rating of the
film without having to, per say, do their own research. For example, a film
such as ‘Jackass’ is clearly going to be rated an 18, due to the violence,
nudity, and more that only an older, more mature audience would find
comedic, as it is a comedy, yet a younger audience may be uninterested,
worried at what they see, or it may just not be suitable for them to watch
overall. On the other hand, a film such as ‘Toy Story’ is going to be rated at U
due to it’s focal point of entertaining the children who watch it, and it’s also
very family friendly overall, and is meant to cater to a younger audience.

3. Office of Communications {OFCOM} - Daniel
OFCOM was founded as recently as 2003 upon the creation of the
communications act, and focuses on regulating television programmes
that are broadcast to the public, and aims to make sure that the
programme sticks to the regulations and guidelines that OFCOM tell
them to. They use a service called ‘The Communications Act’ as a
basis of their whole company, and use them as a principal to help the
consumer of their product see exactly what they want to. They make
sure that British television, no matter the age, is regulated closely and
doesn’t include things against their codes and conduct, such as specific
views about ‘Harm and Violence’, specifically about the use of violence,
whether verbal or physical, must be used after the watershed so that it
doesn’t affect any children that may be watching or give them any ideas
that children may easily be susceptible to. For example, as near as
October 2017, OFCOM are going to be banning any product placement
that appears within children’s programmes for 16 year olds and below

4. Watershed - Daniel
The watershed is meant to be the time when certain television programmes may or may not be broadcast,
and is used specifically to help take television shows that are [not] acceptable for a younger audience, and
decide when that programme should be played. For instance, shows such as ‘Teletubbies’ will obviously
be shown before the watershed time of 9pm, as it has no violence, and language, is family friendly and is
meant for the children. However, when films are broadcast on television, films such as ‘Blade’ may be
shown after 9pm due to the watershed not wanting it to be shown to kids due to its violent nature.
Watershed is also a part of OFCOM, so is regulated through them the exact same way. However,
sometimes people aren’t happy with the use of their watershed, or believe it has been used wrongly, which
is shown through ‘Coronation Street’ when many people complained about the use of swearing within the
show in a particular episode that was shown before 9pm, and forced OFCOM to keep an eye ouyt for any
episodes prior to this for a short period of time.

5. The Copyright, designs and patent acts 1988 -Adam
The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, is the current UK copyright law. It
gives the creators of literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works the right to
control the ways in which their material may be used, in simpler words Copyright
is when you create a piece of work or something done by an owner, after it’s
finished it has a copyright which means all your work is protected by the law and
no one or anyting can use it for their legal purposes to add or make of theirs.
However if there is a case that someone does your your work for their own
purposes and reasons then you can sue them and take them to court, there has
been many cases of copyright sue laws that have happened in the past and still
happen to this day. In order to use somebody else's intellectual property, you
must acquire a license that grants you permission to use the work. Faraz Sadiq
and and Ayaz Saddiq were both Sentenced for Copyright Offences Both were
sentenced to nine months, suspended for two years, as well as receiving 150
hours unpaid work. Both websites were streaming films which were subject to
copyright and no permission had been given by any of the relevant copyright
holders to either upload or distribute the material via the websites.
(www.filmzzz.com’ and ‘www.legalmovies.tv)
Information about defamation Act 2013

6. The defamation Act 2013- Adam
The defamation act was made in order to change the law surrounding defamation and
to ensure that a fair balance between the protection of reputations and freedom of
expression was being established. In simpler words The law of defamation allows
individuals, groups of individuals, companies or firms to sue for damage to their
reputation. You can defame someone by publishing material in various forms and people
can sue so long as the material can be reasonably understood to be referring to them
Via: newspapers or other printed media, Broadcasting on radio and TV, On the web (
including online forums and social media sites, and by email.
In the uk the act of defamation can be defended in several ways, these are first of all
proving the information that has been spread is true, in cases with multiple points you do
not need to prove all the points but enough that the remaining points do do not serve as
enough evidence to put together enough of a case in the first place. Another thing about
defamation is it cannot include opinions so even if someone posts their opinion which
due to their influence damages the reputation of the target they cannot be sued for
defamation.
Information about defamation Act 2013

7. Cases of defamation act 2013- Adam
Examples of cases of defamation A comedian Frankie Boyle won a case of
defamation against the Daily Mirror after they had labeled him as being
racist. In they defended on the basis that their accusation were true however
the jury found that their was not enough evidence to support the statement
as the comedian was able to say they evidence was part of a joke and as a
result the case ended in his favor with him winning £50,400 for the actuation
of racism and a further £4,250 as their statement that he was kicked of a
show as a result was also deemed to be defamation.

8. Bibliography {Sources}
http://www.bbfc.co.uk/ - Collecting the rating of films
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/about-ofcom/what-is-ofcom - Information on OFCOM
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/100103/broadcast-code-april-2017.pdf - OFCOM Broadcasting Code
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/tv-radio-and-on-demand/advice-for-consumers/television/what-is-the-watershed - Watershed