Tory MP wants the BBFC to rate educational material too

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This is an odd story.

Mike Wetherley, Tory MP for Hove has been to the BBFC to discuss the voluntary exemption system that is used for certain DVD releases.

Essentially he wants all DVDs that are currently released under the self-imposed 'E' (Exempt from Classification) rating to have to be submitted to the BBFC because of a small minority of titles that are released under this system that are unsuitable for this informal certificate such as certain racy music videos for instance. Essentially, 'E' features cover educational programmes, documentaries, religious shows, football matches and some music videos.

I think the guy's misguided at best - principally because many of these DVDs are released on a small budget and would often not happen had they had to submit their releases for BBFC classification. The cost of submitting a 90-minute film for commercial DVD release currently sets a distributor back over £700 and that's before any extras that all have to be submitted and classified. Minor companies faced with submitting many hours of uncontentious educational, religious or sports material for a BBFC classification - a 300 minute educational documentary miniseries split into five parts would come to nearly £1,900 without extras for instance, say - may well decide not to bother and to pack up releasing titles, especially as they don't have an enormous target market in the first place, especially when it comes to titles that only cater to a minority and often specialist audience.

This really would be a sledgehammer to crack a nut and is unnecessary. It would also put more people out of work unnecessarily here, something the government seems to be quite good at at the moment.

Some more information here from the man's own website: http://www.mikeweatherleymp.com/2011/11 ... xemptions/

Comments?

Hard question,

How about passing a law which still allowed the E certificate to be used. But any abuses of it (content rated at 15 or above) would then result in a fine 10x the normal fine for illegal supply of age restricted stuff. I would argue that the offence of misusing the E certificate should be a strict liability offence where the simple act of doing the wrong is all that the authority needs to prove, thus they will not need to show that you intended to do it.

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Health is a state of physical, mental and social wellbeing and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity I am not a jigsaw, I am a free man !

Diagnosed under the DSM5 rules with autism spectrum disorder, under DSM4 psychologist said would have been AS (299.80) but I suspect that I am somewhere between 299.80 and 299.00 (Autism) under DSM4.

Tories. 'Nuf said.

Well they are by no means perfect, but to call the whole Labour party "every bit as bad" as the Tories is pushing it a bit imo.