RESEARCH- MORAL PANICS

 

Many titles currently on sale but exempt from certification contain violent, distressing and sexually explicit scenes. Many of which origin from heavy metal bands, such as 'Slipknot'.

Girls cheerfully show off their gruesome tribute to heavy metal band Slipknot, Stanley-knifed into their arms or belly. A Belgian army officer demonstrates the most effective way to kill someone with a knife. A Pussycat Doll trainer encourages youngsters working out to take off their clothes.

They are of differing seriousness, but all those scenes can be seen in videos that are freely available to buy on the high street or Amazon by anyone of any age, none of which have gone through any classification.

"The great majority of exempt video works are fine," said the BBFC's head of policy, David Austin. "They are not going to harm anyone, but there are a significant number of titles that are potentially harmful to children.

We know from our postbag that parents are concerned about exempt videos. Usually they write and say, 'Why did you give this video an E classification?' The answer is we didn't as it never came to us – it would not have gone to anyone."

The BBFC estimates that around 200 videos might be caught by a change in the law.

Austin showed the Guardian examples of videos that have claimed exemption but would have been classified. They range in seriousness. One of the more shocking is a documentary about the American heavy metal band Slipknot "which, actually my son bought when he was 10 and I confiscated", said Austin. "He's waiting till he's older to get it back."

 

Slipknot is renowned for its explicit publicity and extreme style of music. Mark Brown further stated the CD 'shows one fan who has carved the word Slipknot in to her forearm and another who has done the same in her belly, to which someone is seen pointing in admiration.'

A music video by the Norwegian black metal band Gorgoroth, which was rated X in Germany but is unrated in the UK, shows topless women being crucified with blood running down their breasts

 Through researching moral panics I now realise that having a small impact on your target audince adds publicty to the song and band and could be seen as the 'key to success'. For instance Madonna showing her private body parts. But from this it adds to awareness and therefore success.