Age Ratings on Music Videos

Age Restriction Scheme on Music Videos

The age rating pilot scheme for music videos has been put into place to restrict children on what they are viewing. This has been created due to a complaint about artist Jessie J’s new music video ‘Bang Bang’ that it included sexually explicit and graphic content (images below). From next year, all artist music videos that are signed to British record labels with are given an age rating of 12, 15 or 18. This will restrict the content if the music videos that children watch.   

There are some advantages that come with the age restriction scheme, for example: It will give parents piece of mind about what their children are seeing when watching music videos. David Cameron states it will help parents to protect their children from inappropriate content. The music videos will be classified by the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) which also rate films and DVD’s, therefore it will be easy to classify and easier for the audience to relate to when thinking about why this music video has been given a certain age restriction.

However, there are some disadvantages and limitations that come with this new pilot scheme such as; some artists such as Ben Howard believe it is pointless to introduce this age restriction to music videos. He considers that as due to the amount of different things that are accessible to anyone and a touch of a button, he believes that ‘they are back tracking on they have already done before’. Also, it will be very hard to enforce, when someone goes to watch a certain age restricted, they will have to provide identification proving they are old enough to be watching this film whereas on the internet, anyone can create and profile claiming they are someone when in reality they are someone completely different. Due to this it will prove difficult to police this scheme as you may never know who really someone is on the internet. As well as this, it causes artists to either scale back the content they want for their music video which may upset some artists as they may want a certain thing for their music video and therefore may make them rethink and have to wait a long time to think of another idea that they are happy with for their music video or they will have to make a number of different versions of music video if they have a concept in mind which may not be appropriate to some viewers, therefore they will have to produce different variations of their music video to accustom all audiences.    

I personally believe, just like artist Ben Howard that I feel the scheme won’t be as effective as the government and the public think. As I stated before, due to the vastness of the internet, anyone such as children can access near enough anything on the internet. Although there are ways of using protection systems to keep your children from seeing certain content that maybe not be suitable for them to see, there are common ways around these which will still allow them to view restricted content such as these music videos.    

I believe music videos that will be given an age rating of 15 will contain moderate threat, some strong language or some mild sexual content. Examples of this may be seen in the music video ‘Drunk in Love’ by Beyoncé featuring rapper Jay-Z. In this music video, the artist uses occasional strong language and refers to sexual acts but doesn’t explicitly say anything about having sex which younger viewers will understand. She also wears a costumes which revels her body but only slightly therefore cannot be classed as an 18 rated music video.

An example of a music video that might be classified as an 18 rated music video is ‘Booty’ by Jennifer Lopez featuring Iggy Azalea. This video contains the two artists wearing very revealing costumes which some parents might feel too inappropate for their younger children to see. Also in some parts there is some suggestive and erotic dancing with the two artists which may also be seen as inappropate for certain aged viewers.

Also another music video that could be classified as an 18 rated music video is the video ‘Thug Waffle’ by Flatbush Zombies. In this music video we see the artists swearing using their middle finger towards the camera, smoking and having possession of the drug Marijuana. This could inflict a negative image towards younger viewers which parents won’t want their children seeing as it could inspire them to take drugs, smoke or act like the artists do.

Our group’s music video would be appropriate for all audiences. In our video, we follow the journey of a girl metaphorically escaping from an urban society and finding here feel in a natural and free environment towards the end of the music video. As our music video doesn't contain any content that might be deemed inappropriate by viewers or the 'BBFC' officials such as sexual or explicit content or strong language therefore I see our music video being appropriate for all aged audiences and either wouldn't be given a age rating or a one such as a U which means the content is suitable for everyone to watch.