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Digital Economy Bill [HL]

My Lords, as the noble Lord, Lord De Mauley, has said, I have added my name to this amendment. I am equally pleased that it has secured support from all round the Chamber. Your Lordships may recall that it is an issue which I first raised at Second Reading following a rather gruesome viewing of some of the material that is available on the high street totally exempt from classification. As has already been stated, the amendment seeks to update the current Video Recordings Act which currently allows too wide an exemption for music, sports and documentary videos. The exemption may have been appropriate in 1984 but appears out of date and naïve now. Most of us would expect boundaries to have been pushed to their absolute limits, and that is what has happened. The standards in the current Act relating to gross violence and actual sexual activity are way too high for successful prosecutions to take place, as the noble Lord said. I think the Minister in the other place suggested that prosecutions can already take place under the VRA. Indeed they can, but they rarely do so simply because the standard is set too high. The music and sports videos that a number of us have seen do not contain anything as strong as gross violence or actual sexual activity, but do contain graphic violence such as close-up hits to the head, with commentary glorifying the action and plenty of blood. Like the noble Lord, Lord De Mauley, I have seen music videos which contain no actual sex but feature topless dancing. This is not something to which children should have access and, most importantly, it is not something that parents would expect children to have access to. I suggest this is why both the BBFC and LACORS support this amendment. Trading standards officers want to be able to take action to prevent such works being sold to children. One of the things that worries me most about these exemptions is that the public are not really aware of them. Generally, consumers know the BBFC regime and expect it to protect them and their children. There is an assumption that such works will be classified and responsible members of the industry, generally members of the BVA, classify these works voluntarily. However, there is still a small but significant section who do not, and claim the exemption. This creates a parallel, unclassified market, which confuses consumers—the word ““citizens”” is very appropriate in this regard—still further. For example, would you not assume that a music video marked as exempt was less harmful than one that had voluntarily sought classification and been rated 15? I know from the meeting that I had with the Minister last week, for which I am very grateful, that there is recognition that some of these works should be regulated. Therefore, I hope that the Minister will consider either accepting this amendment or, at the very least, as the noble Lord, Lord De Mauley, suggested, proposing an alternative wording, as the Bill represents an ideal opportunity to plug an obvious loophole.