Legal Research

Video Law ? not law after all

By scott

One of the more interesting and embarrassing things to come out of the UK government’s programme to implement aspects of its Digital Britain report, came to light this week when the government had to admit that the Video Recordings Act (VRA) 1984, which set down that videos and video games must be classified and age rated by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) was never legally enacted due to the fact that the Conservative government of the day failed to notify the law to European Commission.

Under the law the supply of unclassified videos- including pornography and so-called video nasties became a criminal offense, as did supplying 15 and 18 certificate videos to under-aged people.

The government said retailers had agreed to keep to the rules on a voluntary basis until the law can be re-introduced, and whilst no new prosecutions will be commenced, previous prosecutions will still stand (although it would be interesting to see what would happen if someone challenge/tested this theory).

This would however seem to mean that until the law is re-introduced that the BBFC does not actually have any legal authority to classify or not classify videos ? as the right of the secretary of state to designate a body to do that is contained in the act. This would mean that the BBFC’s decision to ban the release on DVD of Koji Shiraishi’s Gurotesuku (Grotesque) just a day before the government’s announcement ? making distribution or sale of it illegal - would not be enforceable.

The film ? described by the BBFC as ‘little more than an unrelenting and escalating scenario of humiliation, brutality and sadism’ was released in its home territory in January, and was to be distributed in the UK by 4Digital Media.

Japan’s fascination with this type of extreme material has also resulted in a request from the United Nations’s Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women suggesting Japan to ban “the sale of video games or cartoons involving rape and sexual violence against women which normalize and promote sexual violence against women and girls.”

Whilst legislation exists in Japan to ban the production and sale of child pornography, the possession of child pornography is still legal. Whilst legislation has been proposed to ban the possession of child pornography ? the government is planning to study the proposal and its effects for 3 years. Additionally the legislation does not include the possession of virtual child pornography.

Back with the BBFC, the last film the BBFC banned was Murder Set Pieces, in 2008.

Full post as published by Information Overload on August 28, 2009 (boomark / email).