The Video Appeals Committee announced today the results of two appeals against the BBFC’s decision to reject 7 sex videos containing sexually explicit material. The appeals, lodged by distributors Sheptonhurst Ltd., and Prime Time Promotions, have been successful.
In its decisions the Video Appeals Committee (VAC) ruled that the Board should have granted each work an ‘R18’ certificate as requested, allowing the companies to distribute and trade the videos through licensed sex shop premises. The ruling comes just one year after the successful appeal by Sheptonhurst against the Board’s refusal to grant an ‘R18’ certificate to the sex video ‘Makin’ Whoopee!’. The VAC found by a majority of 4 to 1 that the Board was wrong to conclude that the video works breached the provisions of the Video Recordings Act because they had the potential to cause harm to children.
The majority accepted “the argument that we do not, in general, prevent adults having access to material just because it might be harmful to children if it fell into their hands. We might have taken a different view if there was evidence that the effects were affecting more than a small minority of children or were devastating if this did happen.” The minority opinion was that “the general effect of all these videos is dehumanising and mechanistic and they are unacceptable within the current guidelines for a classification of ‘R18’.” The Board had produced expert evidence that the material could cause harm to children.
Since the 7 videos were clearly in breach of the Board’s published classification guidelines for ‘R18’, the VAC decision also has serious implications for those guidelines.
The issue of obscenity under the Obscene Publications Act 1959 was not argued this time, since the Board accepted that the VAC had made its own view clear in that regard in 1998 when it unanimously found similar content in Makin’ Whoopee! not obscene. Nevertheless, similar content continues to be seized and forfeited under Section 3 of the Obscene Publications Act. This is a matter of continuing concern to the Board.
In the light of the Video Appeals Committee’s decision, the Board is considering how it should now proceed.
A copy of the full decision of the Video Appeals Committee can be found here.
Andreas Whittam Smith - President
Robin Duval - Director