Now, I am not a parent by any stretch of the imagination, but I will be old one day and need to know that my wrinkled shell will be in good hands. What is important to note is that potentially anyone of any age can watch a 12A movie, providing that they are accompanied by an adult. Although the BBFC proclaims not to recommend that children under the age of 12 choose to view the movie, their jurisdiction is limited by general ignorance. Most people have never even heard of the British Board of Film Classification, its IMDb equivalent an embarrassingly prude outlet for religious extremism which will never be taken seriously in this day and age. As such, the 12A rating is treated just like PG, parents being lead to the cinema by their savvier children – often having done little to research the film of choice and its content.
If my psychology degree has taught me anything (and, believe me, I do not have any delusions of authority), it is that films do not brain-wash children. Indeed, the very fact that the bad guy normally loses is probably enough to ensure that your reinforcement-susceptible child is not going to try to take over the world. However, my concern doesn’t lie with violence, or the ridiculous dread that your child might be subjected to some kissing or a wayward wardrobe malfunction; my concern is language.
At 12 I imagine everyone has been subjected to the full spectrum of swear words – not a comment on society so much as a generalisation from my own childhood experiences. While I didn’t shout them at old people, spray-paint them onto puppies or even know precisely what each one meant, I was certainly well aware of them. At 6, however, I was not, and shouldn’t have been. Now, I realise that everyone is different, and that other societal parameters might prevent children from effing and blinding, but the BBFC must accept the importance of swearing or it wouldn’t have outraged Nigel Cole by slapping his Made in Dagenham with a 15 certificate.
It is not just The King’s Speech either: Drillbit Tailor is full of shit, as is 27 Dresses, while Ghost Town is one big f***ing joke. With a spokesperson for the BBFC telling the Telegraph that “the use of the f-word up to four times in a 12A film is considered acceptable”, having consulted extensively with the public, the official stance seems strangely at odds with a separate poll carried out by The Sunday Telegraph which suggested that the majority of people (56%) believed the “f” word should never be broadcast at all. Just to clarify, I like swearing, however when the guidelines are clearly as subjective as they are, the question is whether the 12A certificate is still valid as an age rating.
What three-year-old cares about one dead man’s speech impediment? What child is going to sit through all sixteen hours of the last Pirates of the Caribbean instalment? What infant is ready for the trauma of having to watch Fred: The Movie? Worse than having to watch Avatar with someone’s confused offspring chattering in the background, and worse than the dilution of 15 movies in pursuit of a more lucrative rating (Sucker Punch, anyone?), the 12A rating has become a contradiction of requirements and increasingly insensitive to the material it inflicts on such a broad audience. As an arguably arbitrary extension of the PG rating, and boasting at least one example of double standards, perhaps we should return to simpler times and bring the 12 rating back to cinemas before the line is blurred further and the harder ratings get any ideas of their own.