Music Video Regulation

Music video regulation is controlled by the BBFC (The British Board of Film Classification). Their job is to provide controversial music videos, films and any other forms of media that the public can access with age limitations if they are deemed unsuitable for the younger generation.

YouTube work closely with this system and have began to regulate videos that are being posted to their site. This means that it can refuse the audience access to the video if it categorised as inappropriate for viewing, only individuals of the age 18 and over will be able to access this content. However, videos as such can be uploaded from unofficial YouTube pages and provide audience with the content that they are unable to access firstly.

An issue with regulation is that is not always secure in protecting audiences from being exposed to controversial media as it difficult to maintain full control and on what is being shown and what isn't. Due to independent journalism, people can create a wide range of different platforms for their media, and post the content that is unavailable to other types of audiences. If it is continuously removed, then they can simply upload it to a different platform for other people to access. Age restrictions have been put in place on social media to prevent younger generation gaining access to unsuitable media, however this never always protects them. Many children that use the internet these days are very smart at figuring out how computers work, and many can fake their own age to access particular media. Without ID'ing every single person that uses the internet (which is a lot!) then organisations such as the BBFC, cannot regulate media too thoroughly.

To put it into context, the BBFC regulated the controversial music video by Robin Thicke 'Blurred Lines'. The 'dirty' video which contained a lot of explicit images in it, was age restricted and in many cases banned from the internet, and therefore they had to create a much cleaner version of the video which was suitable enough to be posed for all audiences to view.