The British Board of Film Classification has responded to the recommendations made in the Byron Review - released today.
SPOnG understands that the BBFC's comments are based on a very quick reading at the board - which only received its copy of the Review at 10:15 this morning. This is despite the fact that the BBFC has been given new responsibilities and, we can only presume, the concomitant financial burden.
Responding to the Byron Report, David Cooke, Director of the BBFC, said:
“I warmly welcome Dr Byron’s report. She has listened very carefully to all the arguments, and exercised her independent and expert judgement.
“It is clear from Dr Byron’s report that games classification is less well understood that that (sic) for films and DVDs. We all need to work hard to bring understanding up to the same level, and help parents and children make informed choices. Games like Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas are for adults, and should be treated in the same way as ‘18’ rated films and DVDs.
“Dr Byron says that when it comes to content, parents want better information on which to base their decisions. I welcome the film-style classification system and greater role for the BBFC which she recommends in paragraph 7.47 of her report.
“At the BBFC we provide symbols which are trusted and understood; thorough, independent examination by skilled games players; individually tailored health warnings, and also the full reasoning for the classification covering all the key issues; a cutting edge approach to online film and games content, including independent monitoring."
“We co-operate closely with the Pan European Games Information Systems (PEGI) and will continue to do so.
“Unlike PEGI, the BBFC has the power, in exceptional cases, to reject films, DVDs and games which have the potential to pose real harm risk. We reject an average of two to three works a year (mostly DVDs) and will continue to do so where it is necessary to protect the public. At the adult level, we respect the public expectation that adults should be free to choose except where there are real harm risks. But we do not think it would be right to remove the reserve rejection power and we are pleased that Dr Byron agrees with this.
“The BBFC has been able to handle a major expansion of the DVD market over the last few years, and we are ready and able to take on the extra work envisaged by Dr Byron. We attach great importance to providing a speedy and effective service, primarily to the public, but also to the creative industries who produce films, DVS and games. We will be talking to the Government, PEGI and the games industry about how to implement Dr Byron’s recommendations.
“We are also studying very carefully Dr Byron’s recommendations on the risks children face from the internet, and believe we have a significant contribution to make in this area too.”
More news as we get it.
SPOnG understands that the BBFC's comments are based on a very quick reading at the board - which only received its copy of the Review at 10:15 this morning. This is despite the fact that the BBFC has been given new responsibilities and, we can only presume, the concomitant financial burden.
Responding to the Byron Report, David Cooke, Director of the BBFC, said:
“I warmly welcome Dr Byron’s report. She has listened very carefully to all the arguments, and exercised her independent and expert judgement.
“It is clear from Dr Byron’s report that games classification is less well understood that that (sic) for films and DVDs. We all need to work hard to bring understanding up to the same level, and help parents and children make informed choices. Games like Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas are for adults, and should be treated in the same way as ‘18’ rated films and DVDs.
“Dr Byron says that when it comes to content, parents want better information on which to base their decisions. I welcome the film-style classification system and greater role for the BBFC which she recommends in paragraph 7.47 of her report.
“At the BBFC we provide symbols which are trusted and understood; thorough, independent examination by skilled games players; individually tailored health warnings, and also the full reasoning for the classification covering all the key issues; a cutting edge approach to online film and games content, including independent monitoring."
“We co-operate closely with the Pan European Games Information Systems (PEGI) and will continue to do so.
“Unlike PEGI, the BBFC has the power, in exceptional cases, to reject films, DVDs and games which have the potential to pose real harm risk. We reject an average of two to three works a year (mostly DVDs) and will continue to do so where it is necessary to protect the public. At the adult level, we respect the public expectation that adults should be free to choose except where there are real harm risks. But we do not think it would be right to remove the reserve rejection power and we are pleased that Dr Byron agrees with this.
“The BBFC has been able to handle a major expansion of the DVD market over the last few years, and we are ready and able to take on the extra work envisaged by Dr Byron. We attach great importance to providing a speedy and effective service, primarily to the public, but also to the creative industries who produce films, DVS and games. We will be talking to the Government, PEGI and the games industry about how to implement Dr Byron’s recommendations.
“We are also studying very carefully Dr Byron’s recommendations on the risks children face from the internet, and believe we have a significant contribution to make in this area too.”
More news as we get it.
Comments
SuperSaiyan4 27 Mar 2008 12:18
1/6
Maybe I am missing something but there are already ratings on ALL games, however imo Mass Effect is incorrectly rated at 12 I believe that should have been a 15.
The main reason kids have access to mature games is mostly due to the parents who just buy their kids the games in the first place.
Games have ratings and this bullshit is stupid why rate something that is already being rated??? This Byron is an idiot and so is the goverment maybe they should actually buy a game and see that its got a f**king rating on it already! And tell the parents off for giving games like GTA to them in the firstplace!
The main reason kids have access to mature games is mostly due to the parents who just buy their kids the games in the first place.
Games have ratings and this bullshit is stupid why rate something that is already being rated??? This Byron is an idiot and so is the goverment maybe they should actually buy a game and see that its got a f**king rating on it already! And tell the parents off for giving games like GTA to them in the firstplace!
Horatio 27 Mar 2008 13:05
2/6
Honestly, I don't see what the problem is... we have gamers like SS4 who understand this problem intimately who could rate the games instead....
I particularly like that "Byron is an idiot" - that Dr at the start of her name obviously doesn't mean what I think it does.
I particularly like that "Byron is an idiot" - that Dr at the start of her name obviously doesn't mean what I think it does.
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tyrion 27 Mar 2008 13:27
3/6
SuperSaiyan4 wrote:
Games have ratings and this bullshit is stupid why rate something that is already being rated???
Games have ratings from one (or sometimes both) of two different rating systems. The point is to male them consistent across all ratings. This will make parental education much simpler and maybe help some of it stick.
SuperSaiyan4 wrote:
This Byron is an idiot and so is the goverment maybe they should actually buy a game and see that its got a f**king rating on it already!
I think it's safe to say that Dr Byron will have seen a game box with a rating on it, she mentions both rating systems in her report.
SuperSaiyan4 wrote:
And tell the parents off for giving games like GTA to them in the firstplace!
First sensible thing you've said today. It's all about educating the parents.
Bailey 27 Mar 2008 16:08
4/6
I for one welcome this as it means that hopefully parents will take the age ratings on games more serially. I have on many timer had to refuse to sell a game to some one with their weekly shopping (I work in a supermarket) as it is clear form the way the kid the kid holds on to the box till he hands it to me to scan that the parent has no intention of playing the game them self’s and it is stupid they would never let their children watch and 18 film so hopefully this change in the rating system will change the way they bye their children’s games.
Also looking at the issue from a different perspective most parents that don’t play video games only remember Pong and Asteroids and at a push the early Mario games and as such don’t have any idea what the game contains as they still think of them as nice little distractions. So we need to try and get to the situation that parents have with films if their children are a bit under age they will watch the film first and decide if it ok for there children (as your age dose not decide if you can watch some thing it is your maturity that dose that) may be they should play the first couple of levels of an game and decide if they think it ok to give it to their children?
Also looking at the issue from a different perspective most parents that don’t play video games only remember Pong and Asteroids and at a push the early Mario games and as such don’t have any idea what the game contains as they still think of them as nice little distractions. So we need to try and get to the situation that parents have with films if their children are a bit under age they will watch the film first and decide if it ok for there children (as your age dose not decide if you can watch some thing it is your maturity that dose that) may be they should play the first couple of levels of an game and decide if they think it ok to give it to their children?
PreciousRoi 27 Mar 2008 16:37
5/6
I like the part where the guy says that games and DVDs should be treated the same, when their recent actions would suggest that the BBFC feels that games have a greater potential for harm than DVDs, given identical subject matter...
As to the above comment concerning parents who only remember Pong and Asteroids...I think many parents of the children we're talking about protecting here are a bit younger than that, some might not even know what Pong was, it was before their time...so I don't think you can label parents of school-age children with a blanket label of ignorance...even the ones who grew out of it would have at least been exposed to an Atari 2600, Commodore 64, or NES.
As to the above comment concerning parents who only remember Pong and Asteroids...I think many parents of the children we're talking about protecting here are a bit younger than that, some might not even know what Pong was, it was before their time...so I don't think you can label parents of school-age children with a blanket label of ignorance...even the ones who grew out of it would have at least been exposed to an Atari 2600, Commodore 64, or NES.
TimSpong 27 Mar 2008 16:56
6/6
PreciousRoi wrote:
I like the part where the guy says that games and DVDs should be treated the same, when their recent actions would suggest that the BBFC feels that games have a greater potential for harm than DVDs, given identical subject matter...
Well, I'm just transcribing my interview with David Clarke of the BBFC, and it makes for some fascinating conclusions. Stay tuned.
Tim