Ethical Issues In The Media Industry

Film Classification

British Board of Film Classification (BBFC)

The BBFC was originally established in 1912 as the British Board of Film Censors by the film industry but is now called British Board of Film Classification. They are a non-governmental organisation, funded by the film industry.

The BBFC is located in London, United Kingdom. It began operating on 1 January 1913. Its legal basis was the Cinematograph Act 1909, which required cinemas to have licenses from local authorities. They are responsible for the national classification and censorship of films within the United Kingdom. It has a legal requirement to classify videos, DVDs and some video games under the Video Recordings Act 2010. They decide what ages they allow people to watch the films and play the games. The primary aims are to protect children and other vulnerable groups from harm through being exposed to unsuitable material.

The reasons why the BBFC is important

The BBFC is really important because it regulates and it controls what is viewed in the cinema by the general public. You would not want to disturb the children’s minds by allowing them to watch scenes which contain violence, sex or bad language. It is also important to protect the young people who are 15 or younger because when they watch the films and they are too young to watch it, it can damage their life because when they watch the films, they might think they need to change and act like the characters in those films. Also films sometimes show illegal underage children were having sex, therefore people might think it is acceptable to have sex whilst underage. The BBFC’s ultimate aim is to protect children and other vulnerable groups from harm through being exposed to unsuitable material. Psychologists believe Children DO copy violence & anti-social behaviour. Therefore this is a reason why the BBFC exist. There is an example of children copying behaviour on the page called The Bobo Doll Experiment.

The reasons why the BBFC is not important

People might think the BBFC is not important because they might feel they have the right to choose whatever they want to watch. Some might think that BBFC haven’t put films in the correct classification. An example of this is ‘Dark Knight Rises’ which is a certificate 12 and a parent complained and said it should be rated a certificate 15 due to its content. This resulted in other parents being on their side.

Many years ago, about mid twentieth century the films such as ‘Frankenstein’, original ‘King Kong’ would have been seen to be ‘scary films’. Today these films would be considered to be almost amusing rather than be scary. Even younger children of about 10 years old, would probably not be frightened. Values and reactions to films have changed very much which is why the BBFC does not always seem important in today’s society.

I think it doesn’t matter what age now because younger and younger children have seen or heard violence, sex, bad language around the home.

The Human Centipede TwoThe Human Centipede Two broke just about every decency law the BBFC ever created. It is a 2011 horror

film which was written and directed by Dutch filmmaker Tom Six. Human Centipede Two is a sequel to 2010’s The Human Centipede (First Sequence). This film is about a British man who watches the first Human Centipede, and decides to make his own ‘centipede’ consisting of 12 people. It was originally banned in the United Kingdom by the BBFC because it had revolting content but was eventually granted an 18 certificate after over 32 cuts were made. The BBFC refused to classify The Human Centipede Two (Full Sequence) for a direct-to-video release. The BBFC had given the preceding First Sequence title an 18 certificate. The board stated that they had considered First Sequence to be "undoubtedly tasteless and disgusting", but deemed it acceptable for release because the "centipede" was the product of a "revolting medical experiment". They had also taken legal advice that First Sequence was not in breach of the Obscene Publications Act.

The BBFC stated that they would not reclassify the film in future, as "no amount of cuts would allow them to give it a certificate".

“Director Six responded to the BBFC's decision in a statement released the next day to Empire magazine. Six criticized the BBFC for including film spoilers in their report, and stated that the film was "...fictional. Not real. It is all make-belief. It is art..." and that viewers should be able to choose for themselves whether or not they decided to view the film. Six also referred to the BBFC's refusal to classify the film as "exceptional".” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_Centipede_2

In October 2011, the BBFC granted the film an 18 certificate after 32 compulsory cuts totalling 2 minutes and 37 seconds were made. The cuts included: Martin masturbating with sandpaper around his penis; graphic

sight of a man's teeth being removed with a hammer; graphic sight of lips being stapled to naked buttocks; graphic sight of forced defaecation into and around other victims' mouths; Martin with barbed wire wrapped around his penis violently raping a woman; a new-born baby being killed; and the graphic sight of injury as staples are torn away from individuals' mouths and buttocks.

If people want to watch full sequence of The Human Centipede 2, you can download it on internet to watch it and doesn’t matter what age they are because you cannot prove they are over 18.

The Bobo Doll ExperimentThe Bobo Doll Experiment was the name of the experiments conducted by Albert Bandura in 1961

and 1963 studying children´s behaviour after watching a model hitting a bobo doll. There are different variations of the experiment. The most notable experiment measured the children's behaviour after seeing the model get rewarded, punished or experience no consequence for beating up the bobo doll. The experiment was to try to show that children would copy adult role model’s behaviour, even violent behaviour because they tend to act how they see others acting.

A Bobo doll is an inflatable toy that is about 5 feet tall and is usually made of a soft durable vinyl or plastic. The bobo doll was most often painted to look like a clown. The doll was designed to be bottom weighted so that if it were hit, it would fall over then immediately lift back up to a standing position. It first came on the market in the 1960s. There is an example of what the kids will do when copying the adult hitting a bobo doll.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHHdovKHDNU

James BulgerA further example is about two ten year old boys who murdered a two year old boy called James Bulger. He

was abducted, tortured and murdered by John Venables and Robert Thompson. They kidnapped James first and one of them was holding his hand and took him to a railway line. They were very cruel to him by throwing paint into Jamie’s eye, threw bricks and stones at his head, kicking and stomping on him. During the trial, the press said the reasons why the boys did that to a little boy were they must have got the idea from the ‘video nasties’ at the time.

It seems that the impact of watching these films and playing on video games will have influenced these young boys. It might not be the total reason but will have had a huge input towards the way they behaved.

ConclusionI think BBFC should exist because the cases of The Human Centipede Two, Bobo Doll Experiment and James Bulger emphasise that the BBFC has a major part to play in preventing children/young people from seeing what they shouldn’t. Although they cannot fully

stop the films being watched in their own homes, the limits have to be in place to try and protect everyone from acting negatively/violently. The Bobo Doll Experiment and James Bulger have shown us the proof what would have happened to the children watching the films or playing the games so this means that BBFC have to really think carefully what ratings should be for the safely of children. Parents should protect their children at home and the BBFC can provide guidance to parents with their classifications but BBFC can protect people by putting the right ratings at cinemas or shops as this is a legal requirement. Overall I think the BBFC is positive way of controlling what people can and cannot watch however due to changes in society they may not seem as important to everyone because the behaviour has changed quite a lot.