How far do changes to the regulation of media reflect broader social changes?

How far do changes to the regulation of media reflect broader social changes?

Regulation is an essential practice in the process of releasing any cinematic production, to allow audiences to identify the type of content and themes present in the product in order to self-regulate their media consumption and prevent impressionable audiences such as children and vulnerable adults from potential harm. The film rating system has changed drastically since the BBFC was founded back in 1912. The organization’s original intent was to censor, rather than classify, which is evident through the change of name from ‘British Board of Film censors’ to ‘British Board of Film Classification’ in 1984. As of today, the BBFC has 7 classifications labelled with suggested age restrictions designed to be easily recognisable by consumers. However, back when the organization began, only 4 classifications existed (U, H, A and X) with only U remaining to this day. It wasn’t until 1982 when we were first introduced to a variant the age-based system we are familiar with today; however it wasn’t until 1989 when a 12 category was introduced. The development of this system has undoubtedly been influenced by the constant progression of both films and audiences alike, as producers tackle more and more films tackle controversial subject matters or fall into a middle ground between ratings, the latter being what influenced the creation of the 12/12A Classifications. Many would argue that this category mainly benefits the producers, as it allows films which would have initially been rated 15 to be targeted to the young teen demographic: The hunger games and twilight trilogies are good examples of this. This is evidence that throughout the years Media regulation has become much more liberal. While once, one of the BBFC’s main concerns was the issues surrounding impressionable young audiences from copying actions they see in the media (copycat theory), now the BBFC allow films such as the ‘Hunger Games’ trilogy, which has a predominant focus on violence (child on child) to be targeted towards a young teen audience. This raises the question whether The BBFC are more lenient towards the inclusion of violence over sex, as films with high levels of violence such as ‘Deadpool’ received only a 15 rating, while abroad it has received an 18 certificate. Films which focus on sex, such as ‘Fifty shades of grey’ and ‘Blue is the warmest colour’ however have received an 18 rating. For the case of ‘Blue is the warmest colour’, it’s initial country of release (france) are much more liberal when it comes to representation of sex in the media, not to mention thefact that the UK are still stricter than most countries when it comes to the representation of LGBT relationships, with many progressive media texts being heavily censored in the UK.

Since the BBFC’s introduction in 1912, we have been exposed to a variety of different media platforms such as TV, Games and most recently, the internet. While for the most part, the same classifications can apply to these platforms, the ways in which they are regulated varies drastically, for one, while someone who’s underage cannot be legally permitted to view a film above their age rating, it is harder to prevent children from accessing content which is being broadcasted live. While the watershed hours were established in 1964, meaning that ‘mature’ content is only broadcasted after 9pm, nothing is ensuring that all children are in bed before this content is aired. As well as this, currently, little is preventing people of any age from accessing whatever content they desire 24/7 through the introduction of streaming services such as Netflix and user-generated content on sites such as YouTube. Neither of these platforms are controlled by a regulatory board, allowing these services to stream content which may not be suitable by OFCOM’s standards.

As for videogames, the constant upgrades allow for authentic simulations of real world scenarios. While violent and sometimes pornographic games have existed as far back as the late 1970s, the platforms were still very niche, it wasn’t until the early 1990s when controversy surrounding games such as Mortal kombat and doom sparked outrage, resulting in the BBFC regulating games until 2004, when PEGI was formed to exclusively focus on regulating game releases. PEGI appear to have a liberal take on regulation, such as their decision to allow hatred to be released, despite the game allowing simulation of murder of innocent civilians. However, Releases of games aimed at children such as the 1999 Pokémon games and New super Mario bros for the DS received a PEGI 12 rating  for their inclusion of gambling minigames, a minor aspect of these generally family friendly games which both initially received a 3 rating, which suggests that gambling is looked at with a more conservative view than back in the 90s, which is contradicted by the fact that forms of real-world gambling are present in games accessible by children, such as the FIFA Franchise. The fact that both ‘The Hunger games’ and these releases share a 12 rating suggests that the different regulators have widely varying standards surrounding what is suitable for each age demographic. The most controversial of these being the internet. The fact that individual sites self-regulate their own content has resulted in bias surrounding the target demographics of content. For example, YouTube have stated in e-mails to creators who have had their work demonetised that this is due to their content not being suitable for a 5-year-old, despite YouTube requiring the user to be 13 to make an account. Creators and content which successfully target children are typically safe from demonetisation due to their advertiser friendly nature, despite often containing themes and imagery which would not be deemed appropriate by regulatory bodies such as OFCOM. While it is important we have a wide range of regulators who are specialised to their focus area, I feel that it is important that the age classification system does not range too far between each individual regulator, as this will undoubtedly cause confusion amongst parents.