Regulatory Bodies

British Board of Film Classifications (BBFC)

The British Board of Film Classifications are an independent classification body, that classify and rate films for suitable viewing.

Their lowest rating for a certificate that is issued to a film, is Universal. Which is for all ages. With the main criteria being there are hardly any areas of content unsuitable for children.

Their Highest rating, other than Rated R, is 18. which is only suitable for audiences over the ages of 18 only. This will be because it will feature strong references to sex, drugs or death most likely.

British Video Association Film Distributors

Now Known as the British Association for Screen Entertainment (BASE) as opposed to the British Video Association (BVA)They regulate the importance of physical media and digital media to restrict the amount of pirated content to promote a business standard across the film and tv sectors to aid growth of developers

Video Standards Council (VSC)

The video standards council are the authority that allow memberships to legally distribute restricted digital content. Video Game RatingsThe VSC are an administrator of the PEGI age rating classification, which is used to classify and rate video games for suitable audiences. The VSC as of 2012 act as the statutory body responsibly for rating video games in the UK.

OFCOMOFCOM are the regulatory body that allow for the British public to have a legal obligation to certain areas of broadcasting, broadband and communication; in that they are entitled to good quality of them. An example of their use for the public is that the public can report any issues that do not meet OFCOM regulatory standards to which OFCOM then inform the company about the complaint formally. An example of this was in 2008, OFCOM fined the BBC for a deceiving viewers by forging phone-in contestants and names of winners. When production staff posed as contestants and forged the names of the winners. These are a breach of OFCOMS broadcasting code, and therefore a large fine was imposed of £400,000

Trading Standards

Trading standards is a government service that protects consumers by supporting legitimate businesses. Their main obligations are to: Enforce fair trading, stop illegal trading, stop under-age sales of content to minors and monitor product safety. They conduct regular routine inspections of businesses to see if legal practices are being carried out.

Advertising Standards Authority

The Advertising Standards Authority, or ASA for shorthand, are the regulatory for advertising and marketing across different media sectors. They work to minimalise the amount of offensive, harmful and misleading content that is released. They work all the time and work with audience complaints to reduce the areas where people are hurt by what is shown.An Example of their work was in their 2015 report. They received 29,554 complaints, and in the end 4,584 adverts were amended or removed.

Independent Games Developers Association (IGDA)

The IGDA are a company that are a non-profit organisation. That are an association that promote, help and inspire the game developers by connection of people with the professional industry aswell as indie producers that promote a professional developing environment and advocate issues within the developing community.

British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA)

Typically associated with the BAFTA Awards, people often forget that the British Academy of Film and Television Arts is an independent charity that promotes, develops and helps Film and TV creations. An example of this would be on their twitter account, they aim to help and inspire the next generation of screen writers by promoting competitions for budding writers. They rely on subscriptions and donations mainly, which help promote the arts and make competition a lot more increased with their added incentive of the BAFTA awards which reward the best content creators over the proceeding year.

Commercial Radio Companies Association

The Commercial Radio companies association had merged with the Radio Advertising Bureau to form Radiocentre. Radiocentre is the industrial body for commercial radio in the UK. OFCOM are the body in the UK chosen to represent the interest of Parliament and OFCOM amongst others. They represent about 90% of commercial radio stations to promote fair use of the radio station with it all being in the interest of the public.