BBFC and deciding the age for our film

The BBFC is the British Board of Film Classification, and it decides on the age rating of a film. We have decided to give ours a rating of  '15' because the website states 'No-one under 15 is allowed to see a 15 film at the cinema or buy/rent a 15 rated video. 15 rated works are not suitable for children under 15 years of age.'

The rating of a film is given to stop/allow certain age groups watching a film. 'Examiners look at issues such as discrimination, drugs, horror, imitable behaviour, language, nudity, sex, sexual violence, theme and violence when making decisions. They also consider context, the tone and impact of a work (eg how it makes the audience feel)'

Any of the following could give the rating of 15:

•   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
•   drug taking

A 15 rated film is good because more content can be added, with all the things above being allowed. However, it is not useful as it is not open to a wide range of an audience, as younger age groups are unable to watch it.

We would apply for a rating of 15 because of the ideas of the hypodermic needle model. This could mean that if anybody that watched the content under the age of 15, it would put ideas into their head that the specific content (i.e murder) would be acceptable. The 15 is also used because of the cultivation theory, to stop younger ages from watching films that include things such as murder, because the more of it they see, the more acceptable it will become. To stop this the age rating is put in place, but also the murderer could be shown to be punished, proving it is wrong to the viewers that are allowed to watch it.

The information in ' ' was found from:
http://www.bbfc.co.uk/what-classification/15
http://www.bbfc.co.uk/what-classification