Online music videos to carry age rating
August 19, 2014
UK online music videos will carry an age classification from October as part of a pilot scheme by YouTube, Vevo and the BBFC to protect children from “graphic content.”
UK PM David Cameron announced the scheme saying: “Helping families with children and parenting shouldn’t stop at childbirth. To take just one example – bringing up children in an Internet age, you are endlessly worried about what they are going to find online. So we’ve taken a big stand on protecting our children online. We’re making family friendly filters the default setting for all new online customers, and we’re forcing existing customers to make an active choice about whether to install them.
“And today we’re going even further. From October, we’re going to help parents protect their children from some of the graphic content in online music videos by working with the British Board of Film Classification, Vevo and YouTube to pilot the age rating of these videos.”
The prime minister said that the Internet should not be exempt from the rules of society. He said: “We shouldn’t cede the internet as some sort of lawless space where the normal rules of life shouldn’t apply. So, in as far as it is possible, we should try to make sure that the rules that exist offline exist online. So if you want to go and buy a music video offline there are age restrictions on it. We should try and recreate that system on the Internet.”