The BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) in an organisation accountable for nationally classifying and censoring films within the UK. The organisation is funded only by the film industry and the government have absolutely nothing to do with it. It came around in 1912 because according to the government there needed to be some element of classification and censorship within films. The government were ready to set some rules and guidelines to be followed to make sure that films were safe to watch for people appropriately. People within the film industry, such as directors, came together and proposed the BBFC to the government where they could set their own rules and regulations to ensure films are kept appropriate and safe for everybody. The government accepted this and this is how the BBFC came about.
When first established the BBFC was actually called the British Board of Film Censorship, however they changed their name to the British Board of Film Classification because classifying films played a larger part in their work than censoring did. This shows that over the years of the BBFC their work and how they approach their decisions has become much more relaxed. The board has faced a lot of criticism for over censoring films in the past - before they became more relaxed. As an example, the film 'Rebel Without a Cause' was cut down immensely to reduce "possibility of teenage rebellion". Due to this, several films have been changed over the years by reclassifying them or having the films re-released. The film 'Revenge Of The Zombies' was originally given a certification of 'X' (equivalent to an 18 today), yet on re-release was given a 'U'.
A regulation that the BBFC have implemented is the age rating regulations. There is 'U', 'PG', '12', '12A', '15', '18' and 'R18':
Here are two websites that I have used to help me with this post:
http://www.slideshare.net/georgiadaly/media-regulation-powerpoint
http://www.bbfc.co.uk/what-classification/guidelines
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