In the ever-changing landscape of video-on-demand, more and more new platforms spring up like mushrooms every day. Despite the abundance of spectacular films and TV shows, the reality of lawless, unsupervised Internet portals, which could leave many vulnerable youngsters at risk, is incredibly terrifying for any parent. This is one of the reasons why nowadays many services offer the option to block certain links, implement pin-protection and age-verification systems and allow to monitor and filter content for minors. Nevertheless, perhaps initially the focus should be on redefining regulations across the board and increasing media literacy amongst the nation.
The BBFC has been making major strides in improving the existing procedures. Ever since 2008, they have been volunteering to collaborate with home entertainment businesses, with the intention to repeat the success of the previously-acclaimed cinema and DVD age rankings for VOD. Together with the Video Standards Council (VSC), which is the video games regulator, they have condensed the Best Practice Age Labelling Guidelines for anyone willing to participate in boosting universal classification. Their recommendations are backed by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport (DCMS), who try to encourage others to get involved in this initiative.
There is definitely a demand for a more structured approach and that became even clearer in September 2018, when following an appeal from the Minister for the Digital and the Creative Industries, the BBFC commissioned two pieces of research. The first one was an independent survey, investigating general UK perceptions and the second was designed to analyse the contemporary situation of the video-on-demand market. These were particularly useful to uncover any potential issues which need to be addressed in the form of new mandatory regulations – as opposed to suggesting non-compulsory classification guidelines. In fact, at present there are no requirements for VOD products to be rated by the BBFC, which is the official rule by the Video Recordings Act for DVD and Blu-Ray.
The results from the surveys revealed that nearly 80% of UK adults are worried about the prospect of their children’s exposure to dangerous materials and almost everyone thinks it’s necessary to show age labels when you stream or download something and that they should be the same as the ones used for DVD and cinema. Furthermore, the urgency of the problem was illustrated by the discovery that a whopping 60% of the younger population is visiting at least two video-on-demand sources a month. This means that their access to these sites is nearly identical to their theatre attendance, which is why it needs to be dealt with in the same manner. To aid that, the BBFC has already integrated a process where these channels can show their current ratings, as well as an online age assessment option (Watch & Rate), implemented in 2010, in an effort to minimise spending on achieving classifications for digital platforms.
At the moment, there are about 20 VOD retailers (Amazon Video/Amazon Prime Video, Apple iTunes Film Store, BFI Player, British Airways, BT TV, Curzon Home Cinema, Disney Life, Google – including Google Play Store, YouTube Movies, Google Web Search, Netflix, Now TV, Rakuten TV, Sky Store, Microsoft Film & TV Store, Virgin Media, Find Any Film, Soho Theatre On Demand, Sony Entertainment Network, Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Media) who comply with the BBFC’s recommendations in their own different way and that’s a superb start, but naturally, reaching the sought-after convergence is an ongoing battle. The likes of Shudder, Mubi and Hayu are still to follow suit and the astounding 67% of video-on-demand suppliers don’t feature any ratings. Additionally, TV catch-up solutions, such as All4, UKTV Player, ITV Hub, iPlayer and My5 fall outside the existing classification standards.
Netflix has actually been at the forefront of this movement and has been working with the BBFC to produce an algorithm-based tagging tool to age-label everything. Right now they are roughly following the guidelines, but in the future they are aspiring to fully commit to applying the official marks (U, PG, 18). After that, they will be doing the categorisation themselves, while the BBFC carries out systematic compliance checks. This could potentially inspire more providers to try and replicate Netflix’s methods or employ their own version. In an ideal world, they would all join forces to sign an agreement to adhere to the same rules.
A further step the BBFC has taken earlier, is to organise more tete-a-tetes with VOD purveyors to talk about their vision. Besides that, they are developing a complete guide on how to use the age rankings for online and they plan to regularly review their recommendations to make sure they reflect public opinions. Another objective is to revamp the signs and make them visually simpler to duplicate for digital, DVD and theatres. Cutting down fees is also on their minds, as the sheer volume of programmes some websites contain may prevent them from applying for classification.
Next, as the BBFC has evidently recognised that the age group symbols play a major role in the issue and obviously their design matters, it is just as important to be able to locate them, as well as their definitions. Having one unified place to look for them could help many consumers pick what to watch. So, educating parents and children is also essential. For instance, surprisingly in cinemas there is often confusion about the difference between 12 and 12A. A couple of ways people could learn is through free short online courses and one-off lectures. As it happens, the answer to reaching a mass audience could lie in an increase in publicity, media coverage and clips for social to truly shine a light on the matter.
Visibility in classrooms is paramount too, because family values differ and while one child may not be allowed to view certain genres, another might be and with the easy access to phones and tablets kids can quickly distribute inappropriate videos between themselves. Google has taken this on board by pioneering the “Internet Legends” expo in October 2015, targeted at primary school children 8-11, teaching them about web safety.
What’s more, YouTube provides the choice to report harmful pieces and receiving direct feedback from viewers, while keeping them engaged is invaluable. Having so many extra watchful eyes, capable of continuously flagging any VOD-related concerns, is a very easy and inexpensive method to review the vast amount of data online that could potentially be incorporated into the Watch & Rate application.
Something VOD distributors could borrow from the gaming industries is the PEGI (Pan European Game Indicator) app. It presents an instant simple directory for consumers to read about the ratings, in relation to specific games. If converted for video-on-demand, it could serve almost as a library where parents can select the most suitable listings for their kids, according to their age. Moreover, the BBFC could upload updates directly from their research reports.
The self-regulating PEGI covers 39 countries and although it might be a challenge to have coherent labels across the continent, due to societal and cultural differences, which affect classification, the states could share best practices and support the use of similar schemes that have proven successful. The Dutch Kijkwijzer, which has been developed by NICAM (Netherlands Institute for the Classification of Audio-visual Media), is an excellent example for a functioning concept that is used to achieve uniform categorisation for mobile, TV, DVD and cinema.
Of course, there is the possibility to write and establish official laws and legislations, so all these companies would be forced to follow the same rules. This may take longer to complete, but it would most likely have the biggest effect. The World Trade Organisation, the United Nations division of UNESCO and the Alliance to Better Protect Minors Online, could be the organisations to partner with to drive this forward and to contribute to constructing a unified policy for everyone.
Fundamentally, the VOD market is unequivocally showing signs to be moving in the right direction and is willing to cooperate with the BBFC. The mere fact that there was a desire for the commissioned research demonstrates that this is something everyone is concerned with and the majority of people agree that there needs to be a united strategy. Parents want to make informed decisions and they have to be able to rely on the age rating framework, no matter which device they’re using – consistency is key. Making sure that everyone is aware of what the symbols mean and where they can find them is of great significance too.
The first stage of this formidable project has begun and the conversations are happening, but it’s necessary to continue and to persevere by making it impossible to not comply with the BBFC regulations – whether that is through new enforced rules or smart tech. Finally, this whole discussion can be summarised perfectly in the words of the Digital minister Margot James: “Our ambition is for the UK to be the safest place to be online, which means having age ratings parents know and trust applied to all online films and video games.”
Resources:
https://bbfc.co.uk/sites/default/files/attachments/BBFC%20VOD%20submission%20guide%202019.pdf