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Dept for Culture Media and Sport

Answer

Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what support the Government has given to the establishment of a classification system for video and computer games. [193345] Estelle Morris: The Video Recordings Act 1984 requires video games to be classified if, to any significant extent, they depict: human sexual activity; gross violence towards humans or animals; human genital organs, urinary or excretory functions; or techniques likely to be useful in the commission of offences. The very small number of video games that fall into this category (32 of the 1,484 published in the UK in 2003), are submitted to the British Board of Film Classification. The BBFC carefully assesses all such games against published guidelines. Under the 1984 Act, it is a criminal offence to supply or offer to supply a legally classified game to a person below the specified age; the penalty is a fine of up to £5,000 or imprisonment of up to six months, or both. It is also an offence to supply or offer to supply an uncertificated video game that should have been legally classified by the BBFC; the maximum penalty is an unlimited fine or imprisonment of up to two years, or both. Trading Standards Officers are the enforcement authorities for the 1984 Act. All other video games offered for sale or rental in the UK are subject to a voluntary classification system introduced by the industry itself. This is the Pan- European Game Information (PEGI) system, which now applies across 16 European countries, and is administered in the UK by the Video Standards Council. Between 1994 and the Spring of 2003, nearly 70 per cent. of published video games were rated as suitable for playing by people of all ages.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

425 c992-3W;425 c992W; 193345

Session

2003-04

Subjects

Software Computers Protection Video games Toys and games

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk