How far do changes to the regulation of media reflect broader social changes?

Regulation is a form of controlling and protecting vulnerable viewers such as children or people who may be intellectually disabled from seeing content that may influence to them imitate the behaviour or make them feel uncomfortable. It can also be used to uphold what society deems as normal and acceptable and to prevent negative messages being projected into society. I will be analysing how contemporary media, such as films, are regulated in the UK and the effectiveness of their practices with regards to social change. The BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) is one of the main film regulators for films shown in the UK and they are a non-statutory institution based on the principal that film is a from of art and is shown universally so they’re decisions are made primarily from the film industry and reflects their interests. They regulate film proactively as content is reviewed before a theatrical release and they regulate films by either giving age classifications, censoring films by requesting cuts or completely prohibiting the film from being shown. I would agree that their regulatory practices have become more lenient due to our contemporary society becoming more desensitised to graphic content and as a result the films that are being made have to become more controversial and provocative in order to gain an audience and more popularity. However even with regulation it’s evidently not completely effective because even if a film is banned from being shown in the UK it can alternatively still be viewed and downloaded on illegal websites.  

The BBFC was founded in 1912 as a way of classifying films with a representativeness and unbiased view without government involvement. The C previously stood for censorship however it was changed after the Video Recordings Act was brought in as films were becoming harder to simply ban. As an organisation the BBFC has become more liberal because of changes in society’s values and new technology. In the 1980s the VRA (Video Recordings Act) was brought in by the government, as a result of moral panic caused by the release of ‘Evil Dead’, to ensure that films that were available to be bought or rented at home were given a classification. There was a fear, predominantly, from the conservative members that the film would subvert the traditional norms and values of society and encourage violent and inhumane behaviour. A scene showing the antagonist stabbing a victim with a pencil caused outrage because it was believed that young children who saw the saw film would want to imitate the behaviour and it would be possible because children have easy access to pencils. When the film was first viewed it had mixed reactions from the regulators so 49 second cuts had to be made in order for it to receive an ‘X’ rating rather than being completely banned. However, in 2000 an uncut version of the original and the remake of the film (released in 2013) were released with an 18 certificate. This could be a result of society becoming more desensitised to graphic and gory violence and suggests also that people’s attitudes to extreme violence have been cultivated overtime and they’re more tolerant to it.

In terms of how media is regulated in contemporary society; there are major differences in how violence is classified in comparison to sex. The superhero action film ‘Deadpool’ was given a 15 rating despite showing scenes, as stated by the BBFC, that involved “strong violence, strong language and sex references” whereas coming-of-age romantic drama film ‘Blue Is The Warmest Color’ was given an 18 rating due to explicit sex scenes and bad language. The two films share the majority of the same features however Deadpool was given a lower age classification possibly due to the fact it doesn’t linger on the provocative or violent scenes for too long whereas Blue Is The Warmest colour exhibits full nudity and homosexual sex. As mentioned before, society has become desensitised to violence and considering Deadpool is based off of a comic book it could be obvious to the audience that the violence is not real and by viewing the film and enjoying the content they’re simply using it for cathartic release which prevents them from displaying negative behaviour in real life. On the other hand, it poses the question as to why the BBFC are more liberal with graphic violence than graphic sex. Media regulation is a way of protecting vulnerable viewers and arguably to uphold moral standards. In this case the 18 rating would presumably protect the vulnerable audience, who are children, from being exposed to sex prematurely and preventing them from imitating what they see at inappropriate moments. Also considering the story revolves around two teenage girls having consensual sex it goes against conservative views on sexuality. They would argue that it’s promoting and encouraging young girls to have pre-marital sex and in a religious context it goes against the view that sex is for a married man and woman and thus would cause a moral panic about societies values being forgotten. However, since the film was released uncut, with an 18-age certificate it suggests that the BBFC acknowledge that contemporary society has become more secular. Additionally, they have to take the director’s artistic in consideration and understand that the film is not a “sex work” but has deeper message to communicate to the audience.