The BBFC and what makes a 15 and 18 film

The BBFC and what makes a 15 and 18 film

For half of my part of the research I am going to look into the BBFC and what makes a 15 and 18 film.

Who are the BBFC?
First of all, BBFC stands for British board of film classification. They are a non governmental organisation, funded by the film industry and they are the people who decide what certificate of age rating a film should contain. This is is really important and was started because young children were seeing inappropriate violent films and copying the actions they viewed in the film. The BBFC was set up in 1912 for cinema screening. However, it has also started to do videos, dvds etc since 1984.

What is allowed in a 15 film?
The guidelines are split into boundaries and sub categories. These are: Language  Discrimination, Nudity, Sex, Horror, Imitable Behavior, Theme, Drugs and Violence. This does not mean in a 15 film, a lot of this is shown because they are restricted to an amount they are allowed to show. For example - drugs, "Drug taking may be shown, however should not promote misuse. This means that in 15 rated films, they are allowed to use drugs, however they are not allowed to show a full use of them as it could be seen as promoting to the audience. Another example is the use of strong language. Frequent use of strong language can be permitted, although very strong language needs to be restricted and would have to be seen as reasonable in the context. Frequent usage of very strong language would be seldom allowed. This means that strong language is allowed to be used. Although, it cannot be taken advantage of and used too much in the film.

What is allowed in an 18 film?
There is no real limit in an 18 movie. You are allowed to show almost anything as long as it isn't too disturbing as the film could potentially get banned. In the past, violence was one of the most problematic aspects when passing a film with an 18 certificate, whether it is sexuality or fantasized violence. Horror films were often the culprits for the portraying graphic violence and this often results in a lot of grief to the examiners. Therefore, they must remove the offending scenes before giving it a certificate. Examples of what 18 films may contain are: "Illegal drug use" this could potentially encourage younger minds to repeat these acts which is why they only allow persons who are 18 years or older to watch them at the cinema. 

So, is there a real difference between a 15 and 18? 
The answer is yes, depending on what the film contains and presents. Some films may be scraped and argued into a 15 as it all depends on the contents. 

I have learnt a lot from doing this task. I have learnt the main difference between a 15 and 18 which will help the decision making in my group when we come to deciding what we want the age rating to be. I have also learnt why and how the films have a certain age rating as it does affect peoples actions as they may copy what they see.