Video on Demand: Age Ratings

(asked on 12th April 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of the barriers to (a) Disney+ and (b) other platforms to prevent them from using BBFC's best practice guidelines.


Answered by
Caroline Dinenage Portrait
Caroline Dinenage
This question was answered on 19th April 2021

As the designated body for age classification of film content, the Government has great trust in the British Board of Film Classification’s (BBFC) best practice age ratings and continues to support the adoption of BBFC ratings for content on video on demand platforms.

While adoption of the BBFC’s age ratings by such platforms is currently voluntary, we welcome their usage and were particularly pleased to see Netflix announce on 1 December 2020 that they have become the first platform to achieve complete coverage of their content under the BBFC’s ratings.

The Government has not made any specific assessment regarding parents’ expectations of video-on-demand platforms’ content being classified in line with the BBFC's standards, or the barriers that platforms face to adopting the ratings. We note, however, that the BBFC regularly consults with the public and publishes its research online. The Government continues to engage with platforms to adopt the BBFC’s ratings across all of their content, and will keep the evidence for legislation in this area under review.

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