The purpose of regulation is to control and protect vulnerable viewers such as children or adults who may be vulnerable to certain content because of possible disabilities, this is when some content has the ability to influence individuals to imitate the same things they witness on social media or TV. The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), is a non-statutory film regulator which only targets films that are exhibited in the UK. This means any of the decisions that the board makes is solely made from the film industry. By having this type of control, popular regulators like the BBFC and OFCOM, have the ability to control what the audience should be able to see and what they shouldn't be seeing. This method of regulating leans towards the conservative side of things where the thought of contemporary society should be protected to reduce the risk of harm that certain content could produce through the media. The BBFC regulate their films in the pro-active method due to the before the initial release to establish the films age classifications, these can change due to the editing that may be done to the film after, for example, cutting of excessive gore to fit the film into a younger age classification/category. Whilst taking regulatory related actions, I strongly favour the liberal approach over a conservative one due to the proven fact that society is now becoming even more desensitized to disturbing content. Regulatory practices like the BBFC and OFCOM, as well as our contemporary society, have become desensitized to graphic pieces of work which means that film makers now compete with each other to cause the most controversy, whether its good or bad, which would end up in their products being watched and reviewed, thus, making them money. However, if there was an individual who was uncomfortable with a certain piece of content in the media, they should self-regulate themselves as they may the minority of people who feel the same way as they do.
The BBFC was set up in 1912 to protect the public from media material that may present harm risk, the BBFC initially only classified cinema films just until the Video Recordings Act was established in 1984 where it began to regulate videos as well as DVDs, this is because it was becoming increasingly difficult for regulators to ban films. The BBFC have now undoubtedly become more liberal compared to when the Video Recordings Act was released back in the 1980s, the main cause of this act was the infamous pencil scene in 'The Evil Dead' which could be easily imitated by children due to the everyday house hold object used as a deadly weapon, this caused a moral panic for the public as parents feared for their childrens safety. However, nowadays, because of digital technology being used more and more each day, it allows individuals to explore and watch any content they can find. This also means that the public have access to streaming services which became popular in the last decade where regulators like the BBFC and OFCOM do not have control over what is being uploaded onto the service. Some examples include Netflix where they have released their own series's that have caused controversy like '13 Reasons Why' because the mental health issues that are addressed in the show.
In contemporary society, the media is regulated very differently in terms of violence and sex/nudity. Deadpool, a 2016 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics, was issued a 15 age rating, this meant they overlooked the fact that the film involved “strong violence, strong language and sex references” (which was stated by the BBFC). On the other hand, Blue Is The Warmest Colour, a 2013 French coming-of-age romantic drama was issued the highest age rating of 18 rating because of its sexual nature and explicit sex scenes. Despite the two different age ratings that these films were given, the two films have a lot in common like nudity, however BITWC was given the higher rating due to the very explicity sex scenes. This also sparked controversy as the public argued that BITWC was given a higher age classification because of the nature of homosexual sex that can be explicity seen in the film, however others have argued that this is not the case.
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