Obtained by the Telegraph through a Freedom of Information Act request, correspondence between the BBFC and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) details a system wherein the most sexually explicit content available online would carry an R18 rating, a rating that normally applies only to products purchased in sex shops or screened in adult movie theaters.
Under the system, any adult content available for streaming or download would be accessed by way of a landing page that clearly labels the content as inappropriate for minors. Such landing pages would be required to be free of any sexual content, and would include some manner of age verification, according to the Telegraph.
While representatives of the BBFC stated that the new ratings would help protect British children from being exposed to hardcore pornography and excessive violence, some U.K. media analysts countered that a ratings system alone will not prove effective.
In March, BBFC director David Cooke wrote to Phil Clapp, the head of the DCMS, touting the rating system as a means to “allow U.K. customers to avoid inadvertently being exposed to material which may be illegal and/or harmful.”
John Beyer, the director of watchdog group Mediawatch U.K., derided the proposed system as “utterly useless.”
“A lot of children have their own money and bank accounts and so it’s not a problem for teenagers to download [R]18-rated films,” Beyer said.
Adult industry attorney Rob Apgood told XBIZ that whatever eventual form the policy established by the BBFC takes, it will not be enforceable outside of the U.K.
“The law will only reach as far as the authority of the British courts,” Apgood said.
While the scope of the proposed system would be small, and its effect similarly limited, the idea appears to be popular with the British public, judging by the results of a recent survey conducted by the BBFC. According to ContactorUK.com, 84 percent of those surveyed by the BBFC said they would like to see cinema-style ratings applied to downloadable films.
