Censorship And Watersheds

Censorship And Watersheds

Censorship is the suppression of film content which may be considered harmful to audiences. Film/TV programs often have guidelines which state what audiences the content is suitable for. The guidelines are used to classify films as follows: 

These classification guidelines protect groups of people, for example children viewing content that would be unsuitable for them. All films and television programs and even adverts have to be classified to protect viewers and to allow people to make appropriate choices. For example; if an adult was choosing a film for a child then they would know that a 15 would be unsuitable for that child to watch.

Censorship also protects people from offensive content, it does this by highlighting what the film/TV program contains, often on the back of the cover or in the tv guide if it is on television. It highlights content such as violence, nudity and swearing.


Watersheds

Watersheds are the point of time at which adult programs may be broadcast on TV.  Programs that contain things such as violence, nudity and sexual intercourse aren't allowed to be shown before watershed, and only programs that are suitable for family viewing are allowed to be broadcast. The time for watershed in the UK is 9pm. If I was to put adult content in my script it would have to be shown after watershed, meaning that possibly fewer people would view it. When I write my script I will think about what content is appropriate and what shouldn't be depicted, even after watershed. For example, even if sexual intercourse is permitted to be shown after the watershed I would have to think carefully before using it, as it may be a bit close to the bone.