The Video Recordings Act 1984 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that was passed in 1984. It states that commercial video recordings offered for sale or for hire within the UKmust carry a classification that has been agreed upon by an authority designated by the Home Office. The British Board of Film Classification, which had been instrumental in the certification of motion pictures since 1912, was designated as the classifying authority in 1985. Works are classified by the BBFC under an age-rated system ; it is an offence under the Act to supply video works to individuals who are under the age of the classification designated. Works that are refused classification cannot, under the Act, be legally sold or supplied to anyone of any age unless it is educational, or to do with a sport, religion or music and does not depict violence, sex or incite a criminal offence. The BBFC may also require cuts to be made, either to receive a certain age rating, or to be allowed a classification at all. In August 2009 it was discovered that the Act was unenforceable as the European Commission was not notified about it, as required by Directive 83/189. Directive 83/189 had to be implemented by 31 March 1984. Until this situation was rectified, it was legal to sell and supply unclassified videos and computer games, although many retailers had agreed to observe the regulations voluntarily. Then pending prosecutions under the Act were abandoned, but the government has claimed that past convictions cannot be challenged. In December 2009 the government introduced new legislation, the Video Recordings Act 2010, which repealed and immediately revived the Video Recordings Act 1984, after the required notification was provided to the European Commission in October 2009. This legislation, which was enacted under the "fast-track" procedure, made the 1984 Act enforceable once again, as well as allowing it to be amended by the Digital Economy Act 2010. In December 2014 streaming and on demand services were brought under the remit of this act via the Audiovisual Media Services Regulations 2014.
History
The act was a legislative reaction to a moral panic concerning "video nasties" that was sparked by tabloid newspapers in Britain during 1982 and 1983. Sport, music, religious, and educational works are exempt from classification under the Act. Exemption may be forfeited if the work depicts excessive human sexual activity or acts of force or restraint associated with such activity, mutilation or torture of humans or animals, human genital organs or urinary or excretory functions, or techniques likely to be useful in the perpetration of criminal acts or illicit activity. The Act was accompanied by the Video Recordings Act 1985, which set out regulations governing the display of certificates awarded by the BBFC on published recordings. The act was amended in the Video Recordings Act 1993 but underwent no significant changes. It was amended again in the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 to deal with the growing issue of "video violence". In addition, the amendment extended the definition of a video recording to any device capable of storing electronic data, which invariably includes works available on DVD as well as CD and CD-ROM, although the amendment exempts video games. The current labelling regulations are The Video Recordings Regulations 2012.
