Written evidence from British Board of Film Classification [MIS0011]

About the BBFC

The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) is the not-for-profit independent regulator for film and video in the UK. The BBFC is also the independent regulator, on a voluntary, best-practice basis, of internet and commercial content delivered via the UK’s four mobile networks.

The BBFC provides trusted age ratings and content advice shaped by the UK public. There is a high demand (81%) for consistent age ratings and content advice across cinema, home entertainment, and streaming services.

Every BBFC age rating decision and every piece of content advice is based on our Classification Guidelines. Our Guidelines are the result of extensive consultation with thousands of people across the UK and are refreshed every four to five years to ensure they continue to reflect the expectations of UK audiences. We also take into account UK legislation, and we will not classify any material that is in breach of the criminal law.

When classifying content in accordance with our Classification Guidelines, we consider the portrayal of many issues, such as sexual violence, violence including domestic abuse, and discrimination.

Our research repeatedly shows that sexual violence is the area of most concern for UK audiences. We do not permit stronger forms of sexual violence at U and PG ratings, and at 12A/12 sexual violence should only be implied. Factors such as a focus on the victim being overpowered can lead to higher ratings. We may deem content unsuitable for classification if it makes non-consensual sexual violence appear appealing, suggests victims enjoy such behavior, or invites viewer complicity.

For violence, our classification decisions depend on the degree and nature of the violence, with realistic depictions, for example domestic abuse, likely receiving more restrictive ratings.

Our discrimination classification decisions take account of potentially offensive material relating to matters such as race, gender, religion, disability or sexuality, and of the strength or impact of their inclusion, in addition to the context. We may give higher ratings when discriminatory language or behavior is unchallenged, is accompanied by threats or violence, or involves a power imbalance. The BBFC's current Guidelines, effective from 1 May 2024, reflect public concern about the normalisation of bad language, especially terms with sexual or misogynistic connotations.

The BBFC is the UK’s foremost authority in the regulation of pornography. For 40 years, we have had statutory responsibility for classifying pornographic material released on physical media formats (such as VHS, DVD and Blu-ray) under the Video Recordings Act 1984 (VRA). We also classify some online content on a voluntary, non-statutory basis for a small number of adult services.

We welcome this opportunity to submit written evidence for consideration by the Women & Equalities Committee, and would be available to give further evidence and answer any questions raised by our submission.

How is content on social media and online, such as violent pornography, contributing to sexist and misogynistic attitudes and behaviour and violence against women and girls both online and offline?

The BBFC has long been concerned about the harms represented by unregulated online pornography, which disproportionately affect women and girls.

For ‘offline’ release, we classify pornographic works (i.e. works made primarily for the purpose of sexual arousal) either at 18 or at R18. At the 18 category, we generally only classify pornographic works that contain sexual activity that may be simulated. At the R18 category, we classify pornographic works containing clear images of real sex, strong fetish material, sexually explicit animated images or other very strong sexual images. It is a criminal offence to supply an 18-rated video to a person younger than 18, and R18-rated videos may only be supplied in licensed sex shops.

It is one of the BBFC’s guiding principles that adults should be free to choose what they want to watch, provided that it is legal and not harmful.

We will not classify any content that is in breach of the criminal law,– for example, indecent images of children and extreme pornographic images.

The BBFC is also legally required, under the VRA, to have ‘special regard (among the other relevant factors) to any harm that may be caused to potential viewers or, through their behaviour, to society by the manner in which the work deals with—(a) criminal behaviour; (b) illegal drugs; (c) violent behaviour or incidents; (d) horrific behaviour or incidents; or (e) human sexual activity’.

It is for this reason that we will not classify any pornographic material which we believe represents a credible harm risk – for example, content which eroticises sexual violence or depicts the violent abuse of women. It is a criminal offence to distribute on physical media formats pornography that has not been classified by the BBFC.

The BBFC’s Classification Guidelines state that the following material is unsuitable for classification at R18:

●       material that is in breach of the criminal law

●       material (including dialogue) likely to encourage an interest in sexually abusive activity, which may include adults role-playing as non-adults

●       the portrayal of sexual activity that involves real or apparent lack of consent. Any form of physical restraint that prevents participants from indicating a withdrawal of consent

●       the infliction of pain or acts that are likely to cause serious physical harm, whether real or (in a sexual context) simulated. Some allowance may be made for non-abusive, consensual activity

●       penetration by any object likely to cause physical harm

●       sexual threats, humiliation or abuse that do not form part of a clearly consenting role-playing game

BBFC guidelines on what constitutes harmful pornography are broadly accepted both by the public and by the distributors that submit adult content to the BBFC for classification.

However, the increased availability of online pornography has undermined long-established offline efforts to protect society from the harmful effects of the most violent, abusive and degrading content while respecting the right of adults to access legal, non-harmful pornography.

In 2014, the Government amended the Communications Act to introduce new rules for UK-based on-demand programme service providers, which are regulated by Ofcom. This included a requirement that such services must not carry any ‘prohibited material’ (defined in 368E[3] of the Act, and including content the BBFC would refuse to classify at R18). In practice, however, this only applies to a fairly limited subsection of online services, meaning that content which breaches the BBFC’s standards for acceptable content at the R18 category remains widely available online.

The result is that a very large volume of violent, abusive material that would never be approved for offline distribution has become widely accessible to UK pornography users, normalising aberrant acts and attitudes and fuelling harms predominantly affecting children and women. We see the impact in the widely documented rise in choking during sex: an activity that can lead to death or serious injury, and that would be subject to BBFC cuts under the VRA.

We believe that there is considerable evidence that supports the urgent need for more comprehensive parity between offline and online rules, particularly to protect women and girls, who as previously noted are disproportionately affected by the harms represented by unregulated online pornography.

Relevant research

Relevant findings from the BBFC’s 2020 research report Young People, Pornography and Age-verification indicating the potential impact of viewing violent pornography include:

●       Parents interviewed were worried about their children being exposed to depictions of rough or aggressive sex, arguing that it created unrealistic expectations of sex and what happened in a ‘normal, loving relationship’. Specific categories of concern included pornography that involved (1) rough or violent sex, (2) imitation of incest or rape, (3) bondage and (4) ‘gang bangs’. Many parents felt that pornography had become more violent than it used to be and that these types of pornography are now more accepted.

●       This concern was echoed among the young people we spoke to, some of whom referred to the potential ‘trauma’ of encountering such content.

●       One young woman (18) reported watching ‘violent, extreme pornography’ from the age of 7 and believed that this had affected her sexual preferences.

●       Young women and girls in particular spoke of their fear that aggressive depictions of sex would be seen as ‘normal’ among young male viewers of pornography and emulated in real-life sexual encounters. In some cases this had already happened, as one boy (16) reported: ‘My friend tried to choke his girlfriend once when they were having sex because he had seen it in a porno’. A young woman (18) reported a boyfriend pulling her hair and ‘yanking’ her head back during sex. He later told her, ‘I thought you might like it. The girls in porn like it.’

●       One girl (17) expressed concerns about a ‘rape culture’ on pornography sites, and reported seeing content that she felt ‘kind of normalised [rape]’. She remarked that, ‘Young people don’t see what is wrong with it [acting out rape fantasies]’.

More recent research includes that published by the Children’s Commissioner for England in January and May 2023. The first report, ‘A lot of it is actually just abuse’ - Young people and pornography, highlights the scale at which young people are exposed to violent pornography depicting coercive, degrading or painful sex acts and the impact of this exposure on their understanding of healthy relationships. The second report, Evidence on pornography’s influence on harmful sexual behaviour among children, explores the harms that children face from accessing violent pornography, and how that might influence their own harmful sexual behaviour.

The All-Party Group on Commercial Sexual Exploitation launched the findings of its Inquiry on Pornography in February 2023. The APPG’s report highlights the prevalence of violence and abuse in online pornography, and the role such content plays in fuelling sexual violence and other social and political harms against women and girls.

This view is echoed in the 2021 Ofsted Review of sexual abuse in schools and colleges, which highlights the alarming prevalence of sexual harassment and online sexual abuse in schools, noting that ‘although there is insufficient evidence to demonstrate that viewing pornography leads directly to harmful sexual behaviours, there is evidence to suggest that young people appear to become desensitised to its content over time and that it can shape unhealthy attitudes, such as acceptance of sexual aggression towards women’.

Baroness Bertin’s Independent Pornography Review

In 2023, the Government commissioned Baroness Gabby Bertin to lead an Independent Pornography Review to examine the regulation, legislation, and enforcement of online pornography.

Published in February this year, Baroness Bertin’s report Creating a safer world: the challenge of regulating online pornography highlights numerous harms fuelled by unregulated online pornography, including its impact on mental health and its link to violence against women and girls.  

The report recommends legal reform to enhance the regulation of online pornography, including a recommendation that ‘violent, harmful and misogynistic pornographic content, that is illegal to distribute in physical formats, should also be treated as illegal content on online platforms’.

The BBFC strongly supports Baroness Bertin’s recommendations and we believe that parity between the online and offline regulation of pornography is an achievable objective. Tackling the availability of such content – which includes material that endorses sexual violence and normalises dangerous acts such as strangulation – would make a significant contribution towards the Government’s objective to halve violence against women and girls within the next decade.

We also support the recommendation that the Government ‘appoint a body, such as the BBFC, [...] to audit content from platforms that host pornography to ensure they are tackling prohibited and illegal content’. The BBFC is uniquely placed to take on such a role given our unparalleled expertise in the regulation of pornography, and we would welcome the opportunity to do so.

May 2025