Regulation

What is 'regulation'?

Regulation is the control or guidance of mass media by governments and other bodies.

Nearly every kind of product that is released for the public to see/view it will be regulated by the BBFC where they will announce the age rating that best suits the product, this can be done for films, music videos, video games and much more. By doing this, it protects vulnerable people in the public or the public in general, from seeing offensive and damaging content if it is not suited for their age.

Regulation is present to stop the bad influence of committing dangerous acts or influencing bad behaviour onto younger people who are naive and willing to follow any popular trends.

Who should regulate?

The person who is regulating the media needs to be trusted on their judgement where we can depend of the factors below of theirs. 

The person who is regulating needs to be a positive representative of society, this means they should represent different cultures, backgrounds, races to emphasise that the regulator will not be biased. Furthermore, by having someone of a mature age to be a regulator rather than a young person shows that the mature person has had more experience thus would be best suited for the role. 

Multiple viewings are required as well, this will help simple and complex messages not to be overlooked where the initial impact can be put across in a manner where a normal audience would receive the message. 

Why regulate?

The media has regulations in order to avoid people being influenced by negative messages or images that may have come across on the media. For example, messages from the Islamic State may want to be regulated to reduce any harmful impacts. Furthermore, this could prevent crime as young people may not be influenced by criminal acts they may see in for example video games like GTA, if their parents follow the advised age rating.