On the 9th of November 2011 Mrs Heidi Renton who is a BBFC inspector came in to have a 1hr 30min lecture about the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification). The BBFC is not a QUANGO, they are independent and have classified cinema films, since 1912 and video/DVDs, video games since 1984.
I found the talk very useful as she explained in details about what shouldn't and should be in a trailer or movie. She also spoke about the history of the BBFC, age classification and what the difference in between them which people may find confusing such as 'U' and 'PG'. During this lecture she showed different examples of clips from films and questioned what age would it be classified as and why.
An example of clip she showed was from 'The Simpsons Movie' where there was nudity (of a ten year old boy), children smoking, sex references and violence but because it was in a form of cartoon, known quantity and a comic it was ultimately passed at 'PG'. Therefore this movie may not have some scenes that is suitable for children but as it is classified as 'PG' they should be accompanied by an adult.
Compared to cinema films in the 1912 the BBFC censored many scenes which cannot be shown. T.P O'connor's 'Forty-Three Grounds for Deletion' contained 'Men and woman in bed together', 'Drunken scenes', 'Premeditated seduction of girls' and 'References to controversial politics' as you can tell by the wording of the rules it was set a very long time ago. However time have changed since then, the overriding principles now are that works should reach the widest audience and that adults should be free to chose their own entertainment. Therefore if an adult decide they want to watch or don't want to watch a film they should not be limited in their choices. Decisions are based on published and regularly updated guidelines.
The most recent report on trailers are seen on the BBFC website http://www.bbfc.co.uk/classification/guidelines/legal-considerations/
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