UK families want the body responsible for age ratings and content advice to be independent of the steaming services they evaluate.
A new report published by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) found nine in ten (90%) parents/carers of 4-to 15-year-olds and eight in ten (80%) teenagers aged 16-19 consider age ratings and content advice to be of equal importance on video on demand (VOD)/streaming services as they are for films in the cinema.
The research, conducted by We Are Family, surveyed a representative sample of respondents using qualitative and quantitative techniques, including a series of in-person focus groups.
It found a high demand for both age ratings and content advice on VOD/streaming services, particularly among parents and caregivers. Young people also see the value of such guidance: over half (51%) of teens aged 16-19 check content advice before choosing what to watch, and nearly nine in ten (89%) said that they pay more attention to content advice if choosing for a person younger than them, such as siblings or other family members.
The majority of parents (61%) of 4-to 15-year-olds said that they would be concerned if VOD/streaming services each used different criteria when deciding the age ratings and content advice for their content. The biggest concern (53%) cited was around the risk of children being exposed to inappropriate content, alongside the erosion of trust in age ratings generally. When considering the potential impact of children’s exposure to inappropriate content, 64% of the sample were concerned about young people seeing and imitating anti-social behaviours (such as drug misuse and violence).
According to the report, UK families believe the most important attributes for the people responsible for setting age ratings and content advice are transparency; independence from the platforms; being up to date with public sentiment; and being reflective of the country’s cultural values, in line with the government’s stated aims.
There was also a consistent assumption amongst participants in the focus groups that age ratings and content advice are determined by a single body that is independent of the VOD/streaming services, regardless of where the content is hosted, and a belief that this was a legal requirement. However, Participants were surprised to learn that this is not the case.
“This new report contributes to a growing body of evidence for our BBFC age ratings to be applied more consistently online,” said David Austin OBE, Chief Executive, BBFC. “People in the UK know and trust our ratings from the cinema and from packaged media, and they find the present inconsistency of standards across streaming services to be confusing and unhelpful. Our innovative partnership with Netflix has proved that 100% coverage of our age ratings and content advice is achievable for even the largest platforms.”
Currently, the BBFC works with 29 VoD/streaming services in the UK to provide age ratings for content on a voluntary best-practice basis. Amongst others, these platforms include Apple TV+, Curzon Home Cinema, Lionsgate+, Prime Video, Rakuten TV, Sky Store, YouTube Movies, as well as Netflix, which carries BBFC age ratings and content advice across its complete UK catalogue.
