Whoops BBFC legal blunder

mike65

Its only a temporary issue but interesting that something so basic happened and not spotted for 25 years

LONDON (Reuters Life!) - British retailers who sell children violent or pornographic videos will be immune from prosecution for the next three months after the discovery of a government blunder 25 years ago.

Britain should have notified the European Commission of the existence of the Video Recordings Act 1984 (VRA) -- which regulated the industry -- but failed to do so.

"Unfortunately, the discovery of this omission means that, a quarter of a century later, the VRA is no longer enforceable against individuals in United Kingdom courts," said Barbara Follett, Minister for Culture and Tourism.

Follett said people currently being prosecuted under the act would not be convicted until a new act can take legal effect in three months, the period required for consultation with other EU member states.

In the interim, people will be able to sell pornographic and violent videos to children under the age of 18 without fear of prosecution.

However anyone previously convicted for offences under the act will not be able to appeal their case.

The British Video Association said distributors would continue to submit their works to the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) and asked its members to comply with the provisions on a voluntary basis.

The Entertainment Retailers Association, which represents more than 90 percent of the UK video market, said: "This is extraordinary. For 25 years retailers have been faithfully administering the system and now this happens."

Fysh

The most interesting thing about it is the UK government's claim that somehow this doesn't invalidate all past convictions under the VRA.

That being said, it'd be really nice to think that this might lead to some informed and intelligent discussion about age classification and what principles are used to determine whether films (or any entertainment media, for that matter) should be edited or censored before wider publication. It's heartening to see that this whole matter arose as part of an attempt to incorporate PEGI into the official process for assigning age ratings to games, at least.