Why do film classification boards bother putting age guidance limits on films?

Andy B

February 10th, 2009 at 4:03 pm

It’s to protect minors from the filth and corrupting influences of movies… well, that would have been so in the 1960′s, but technologies like VHS and DVD, and now the Internet has left the BBFC looking rather impotent.
open4one

February 10th, 2009 at 7:06 pm

Because the rating system allows people to distinguish between different versions of movies of the same name. Bambi rated G is the Disney cartoon. Bambi rated X is not.
Barry C

February 12th, 2009 at 8:56 pm

It IS up to the parents.

The ratings are not supplied by any governmental office, they are supplied by an industry board to provide guidance to parents.

Not all films are rated, btw.

Theaters are similarly not constrained to enforce them, although they may run into problems acquiring rated films from other members of the organizations that agree to abide by the ratings restrictions should they flaunt the rules they agreed to.

But if they don’t want to show those films at all, that is fine.

Many theaters don’t show rated films at all. Many, but not all show foreign films, such as from China or India.

BTW, the same is pretty much true for video games and stores where they are sold or rented.

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