Unit 1 Task 7

 Regulatory Frameworks

As a business focusing on creative enterprises, whether this be films and TV or producing physical products, you quite obviously cannot just do what you want willy-nilly. There are restrictions in place regarding what kinds of content or products you can put out into the world, how you put them out and what kind of audiences you market them for. While some of these restrictions come courtesy of local laws, which we've gone over several times throughout this unit, there are quite a few more specific restrictions for different sectors of the creative industries that are managed and acted on by regulatory bodies. But what is a regulatory body?

Regulatory Bodies VS Regulatory Frameworks

In simple terms, a regulatory body can be described as an organization that has been set up for any kind of regulatory function. In essence, regulatory bodies are companies that are entirely meant to create these regulations and enforce them in order to create a positive impact on the community. When it comes to the creative industry, there are a great number of regulatory bodies that focus more specifically on regulating the results of your creative enterprise - whether this be checking the content of films to see if they're appropriate or going through the information for a newspaper to see whether or not it's overly biased.

This is quite different to a regulatory framework, which is generally created by the regulatory bodies. As described by 'MyLawQuestions.com', a regulatory framework is "a model people can use for reforming and enacting regulations in an effective and logical way." In other words, the regulatory framework is something used by a regulatory body in order to enact regulations on a specific sector - in our case, the creative industries.

Ofcom

A good example of a regulatory body that people within the creative industries would have to listen to would be Ofcom. Ofcom is one of the more well known regulatory bodies within the UK, who describe themselves on their website as "the regulator for the communications services that we use and rely on each day." More specifically, Ofcom looks over and forms regulations for TV, Radio and broadband/mobile services. I'll be focusing more on their regulations of TV and Radio as these are both classified in the creative industries we looked at last task. The aim of their regulations is to try and protect viewers and listeners for both TV and radio from content that might seem harmful or offensive, such as non-historical racism or gratuitous violent content.

In terms of the regulatory frameworks operated by Ofcom for TV and radio, most of their regulations can be found in something they call "The Code", otherwise known as The Broadcasting Code. 'The Code' is a rather long document detailing all of their regulations regarding what can and cannot be done on broadcast (for both TV and radio) in ten distinct sections that each go over a specific issue. These sections are:

• Protecting Under Eighteens
• An example of a regulation from this section would be 1.4 - "Television Broadcasters must observe the watershed", which details the time when material unsuitable for children can be shown.
• Harm/Offence
• An example of a regulation from this section is 2.4 - "Programmes must not include material (whether in individual programmes or in programmes taken together) which, taking into account the context, condones or glamorises violent, dangerous or seriously antisocial behaviour and is likely to encourage others to copy such behaviour", meaning that broadcasters cannot have any content that glamorises violence without proper context.
• Crime, Disorder, Hatred and Abuse
• An example of a regulation from this section is 3.1 - "Material likely to encourage or incite the commission of crime or to lead to disorder must not be included in television or radio services or BBC ODPS", meaning broadcasters cannot include any content on their broadcasts that might encourage people to commit crimes.
• Religion
• 
  An example of a regulation from this section is 4.2 - "The religious views and beliefs of those belonging to a particular religion or religious denomination must not be subject to abusive treatment", meaning someone cannot be treated abusively for their religion on TV or radio.
  
• Due Impartiality and Accuracy
• A regulation from this section would be 5.1 - "News, in whatever form, must be reported with due accuracy and presented with due impartiality", preventing news broadcasts on TV and radio from holding bias.
• Elections/Referendums
• A regulation from this section is 6.8 - "Due impartiality must be strictly maintained in a constituency report or discussion and in an electoral area report or discussion", meaning any reports done for elections or for specific constituencies must not hold any bias.
• Fairness
• A good example of a regulation from the Fairness section is 7.1 - "Broadcasters must avoid unjust or unfair treatment of individuals or organisations in programmes", meaning someone on TV or radio cannot treat a person or company unfairly for no reason.
• Privacy
• A good example of a regulation regarding Privacy is 8.2 - "Information which discloses the location of a person's home or family should not be revealed without permission, unless it is warranted", meaning no personal details about a person can be revealed on TV or radio unless there's a good purpose, such as for criminals.
• Commercial References on TV
• An example of a regulation from this section is 9.3 - "Surreptitious advertising is prohibited", which essentially stops people on TV from advertising a product without making it clear first. No hidden sponsorships.
• Commercial communications on Radio
• Finally, an example of a regulation here would be 10.2 - "Spot advertisements must be clearly separated from programming", which obviously means that adverts on the radio must be clearly separate from the actual content of the radio show.

As we can see from these examples, the regulatory framework presented by the Broadcast Code and by Ofcom as a whole is meant to help keep both television and radio safe for people to enjoy without unnecessary bias, unfair treatment or offensive/potentially harmful content coming their way.

ASA

While Ofcom dictates what can and cannot be made for both TV and Radio, there's another regulatory body that focuses on a more specific section of TV and Radio broadcasting - the Advertising Standards Authority, also known as the ASA. The ASA is a regulatory body that focuses specifically on how advertisements are presented to the public on broadcasts. Whilst Ofcom regulates the content of TV programmes and radio shows and even when/how an advertisement can be shown, the ASA dictates solely the content of the advertisements themselves. According to their website, their mission is "to make every UK ad a responsible ad".

Similarly to Ofcom, the ASA also operates under a Broadcast Code for their regulatory framework, although they also have an additional code specifically for advertisements that are not present on broadcasts such as sales promotions and direct marketing. On the other hand, the broadcast code focuses on adverts that do appear on television and radio such as teleshopping. The Broadcast Code has 32 different sections while the Non-Broadcast Code has 22 sections.

I won't be going over each section specifically like I did with Ofcom, as the majority of the sections have major crossover with the sections from Ofcom's broadcast code: regulations regarding violent content, regulations regarding the safety of minors and regulations for fairness and reducing the amount of abuse for discriminatory reasons. There are some more specific sections as well, however, such as:

• 
  Section 19 for the Broadcast Code/Section 18 for the Non-Broadcast Code - Alcohol
• This section goes into detail about the rules for alcoholic drinks within advertising, with the website stating that "the rules are designed to protect under 18s and the wider population."
• Section 30 for the Broadcast Code - Pornography
• This section restricts what kind of material that's rated R18 can end up within an advertisement - most notably preventing any kind of pornography from ending up within an advertisement.
• Section 33 for the Broadcast Code/Section 22 for the Non-Broadcast Code - Electronic Cigarettes
• An extremely specific section regarding the regulations in advertising for electronic cigarettes specifically and how they are depicted

As we can see, the regulatory framework operated by the ASA is meant to detail what kind of content can be depicted in both broadcasted adverts such as TV or radio adverts as well as the content of print adverts and sales promotions. These regulations prevent harmful, offensive or unfair content from ending up within the advertisements portrayed to the British public.

IPSO

Moving away from the TV and Radio side of things, we have a regulatory body that focuses more on a print aspect of the creative industries - the Independent Press Standards Organisation (aka the IPSO). As the name may suggest, the IPSO focuses on formulating and enforcing regulations for the press, including both newspapers and magazines. According to their website, they "hold newspapers and magazines to account for their actions, protect individual rights, hold high standards of journalism and help to maintain freedom of expression for the press", indicating that they're attempting to ensure that newspapers can't outwardly lie and twist the truth for their own agendas as well as ensuring that the press is free to express their own opinions in their print.

The IPSO follows a similar regulatory framework to Ofcom and the ASA, although it differs massively in how it's presented. Rather than a hundred page long document detailing all of the regulations in extreme detail, the regulations for the IPSO are detailed in a single page document titled the Editor's Code. This Editor's Code details what can and cannot be done within the press, and what newspaper/magazines will have to consider when deciding what to publish for their latest story. The Editor's Code has 16 rather small sections:

• Accuracy
• Quite simply, the press cannot publish something that's purposefully misleading or inaccurate. If this is done, it must be corrected "promptly and with due prominence".
• Privacy
• This section of the code simply states that members of the press cannot infringe the privacy of anyone, whether it be the privacy of their family life, home life or their physical/mental health. This section also details that "editors will be expected to justify intrusions into any individual's private life without consent."
• Harassment
• This section states that "journalists must not engage in intimidation, harassment or persistent pursuit", meaning that they may not attempt to badger someone for a story endlessly. More specifically, "they must not persist in questioning[...]once asked to desist."
• Intrusion into Grief or Shock
• This is a very small section that simply states that journalists/editors must hold sympathy and discretion when handling a topic that could be sensitive or involve someone that's grieving or in shock (i.e. witnessing a murder)
• Reporting Suicide
• Similarly to the previous section, this section details that journalists must take care to not use too much detail about how a suicide is performed in order to keep potential intrusion into grief small.
• Children
• This is a section that attempts to prevent the exploitation of children for the media, including the prevention of interrupting school time and approaching/photographing children without the permission of their parents, guardians or school authorities.
• Children in Sex Cases
• This section prevents journalists from identifying a child victim in a sex case in any way, shape or form. The adult perpetrator may be identified, but the child cannot be identified in any way.
• Hospitals
• The Hospitals section simply tries to ensure that journalists don't barge into hospitals and their private rooms for a story without obtaining the proper permissions first.
• Reporting of Crime
• This section of the editor's code goes into detail about how journalists handle the reporting of crime - they cannot identify relatives of the accused unless given consent/relevant to the story, children must be handled carefully if they are witnesses or victims and that minors that have committed crimes should not be identified in the press unless their name is in the public domain.
• 
  Clandestine Devices and Subterfuge
• This section prevents journalists from obtaining information through unsavoury means, such as "hidden cameras", "clandestine listening devices" or "by intercepting private or mobile telephone calls, messages or emails." The ending of this section does add, however, that "[subterfuge] can generally be justified only in the public interest and then only when the material cannot be obtained by other means", meaning that whilst it can be justified, it's in very specific circumstances.
  
• Victims of Sexual Assault
• This is a small section that attempts to prevent journalists from publishing anything that could identify the victim of a sexual assault unless "there is adequate justification and they are legally free to do so."
• Discrimination
• Quite obviously, this part of the code prevents journalists from discriminating against anyone involved within a story due to their gender, sexual orientation, race, religious beliefs or disability.
• Financial Journalism
• This section is slightly more complex than the others, detailing that journalists generally cannot use any information they've gained for their journalism for their own profit or for the benefit of someone else (excluding pay, obviously). This includes shares that they've recently written about that "they know they or their close families have a significant financial interest."
• Confidential Sources
• This section is only a sentence long, saying that journalists must keep any confidential sources of information hidden from people as a "moral obligation."
• Witness Payments in Criminal Trials.
• 
  This section goes into a lot of detail about how journalists/editors may not offer payment to a witness or anyone who may be called as a witness into a court proceeding. This is, quite obviously, to prevent any kind of bribery for their testimony in order to obtain false/better information.
• Payment to Criminals
• The final section of the code prevents journalists/editors from making payments either "directly or via agents" to criminals in an attempt to exploit or glamorise a crime. This can only be justified by "the public interest", although the rules are far more strict for this than the other sections, stating that "there [must be] reason to believe the public interest would be served."
  

With all this in mind, we can clearly see how the IPSO regulates the press using the Editor's Code - they utilise the regulations within the Editor's Code in an attempt to prevent journalists or editors from taking advantage of people involved within a story for their own gain, including using illegal equipment, falsifying information or bribing witnesses/criminals. These regulations keep the content of the press fair and truthful, avoiding discrimination or potentially offensive content to those involved in the stories.

BBFC

We've seen regulatory bodies that regulate the content of TV, Radio broadcasts and newspapers/magazines. Now, we have a regulatory body that looks over and controls the content within the film side of media - the BBFC or the British Board of Film Classification. According to their website, the BBFC focuses on "helping children and families choose well by providing them with the guidance they need to help them choose what's right for them and avoid what's not." In short, this means that the BBFC gives different films classifications depending on age ranges in order to ensure that inappropriate films aren't seen by younger/family-focused audiences.

Unlike the previous regulatory bodies, the regulatory framework for the BBFC doesn't operate off of a long detailed code. Instead, the BBFC regulates the content of films through 7 different classifications that they give to films depending on their content. Depending on which classification a film has, the film will be limited to what kind of content it may contain/present to audiences. These classifications are:

• U
• 
  The U rating means that the film is suitable for all, or "universal" audiences. According to the website, "a U film should be suitable for audiences aged four years and over". The regulations for films rated U are very strict, preventing any kind of dangerous replicable behaviour, discrimination, drug-use (unless educational), foul language, sexual nudity, sexual content, genuinely horrifying content or realistic violence.
  
• PG
• 
  The next rating up is the PG rating, which stands for Parental Guidance. The BBFC states that this classification is for "general viewing, but some scenes may be unsuitable for young children. A PG film should not unsettle a child aged around eight or older." The regulations for a PG film are very similar to a U film, although with some relaxation of the rules. For instance, sexual activity may now be implied but never obviously shown. Additionally, anything that might be frightening or scary is now allowed although "should not be prolonged or intense."
  
• 12A/12
• 
  The next two ratings are going to be combined into one, the 12/12A ratings. These classifications, obviously, "contain material that is not generally suitable for children aged under 12." All the previous relaxations from the PG classification still apply, although there are even more allowances now. Illegal drug-use may now be shown, although it cannot be glamorised and cannot be frequent. Additionally, discriminatory language is allowed as a whole as long as it's not endorsed/glamorised. Sexual nudity is now also allowed, although "it must be brief and discreet." This also similarly applies to sexual content. The usual changes also apply, including less restriction on the kind of horror that may be shown and how violent fight-scenes may be.
  
• 15
• 
  Next is the 15 rating, which is for "no one younger than 15". This is the first category to allow dangerous potentially replicable behaviour, although a film "should not dwell" on any of this. Additionally, stronger foul language is allowed depending on the manner and context. This rating also drops all restrictions on non-sexual nudity, whilst sexual nudity "may be permitted [without] strong detail." This section also allows strong violence that doesn't dwell on the injury and even allows verbal references to sexual violence/assault, as long as it's not depicted.
  
• 
  18
• The next rating is the 18 rating, which obviously is for adults only. Pretty much all of the restrictions from the previous classifications are entirely removed, with the only restrictions now relating to "material [in] breach of the criminal law". There's also some restrictions on "sex works", which are films made specifically for the purpose of sexual arousal i.e pornography. This is gone into more detail in for the final rating.
  
• 
  R18
• Unlike the other ratings, this rating is solely for sex works or films that have "consenting sex or strong fetish material involving adults." These films can only be shown in special cinemas and can only be sold in sex shops. This classification has the same restrictions as the 18 rating, excluding the restrictions on where and how it can be distributed.
  

As we can see, the classifications given by the BBFC attempt to ensure that offensive and potential harmful content isn't shown to age ranges that could potentially be negatively impacted by the content, such as children seeing very gorey films or sexual content. Without these classifications and regulations, it's possible that a family may not know the rating of a film and will take their children to see a film containing inappropriate content.

PEGI

Whilst films are one form of media that obviously have classifications depending on age, they aren't the only media to do so. Quite often you'll find video games that also have age ratings on them, detailing what ages the game is suitable/inappropriate for. Similarly to the BBFC, there's a regulatory body that decides and regulates these classifications; PEGI, or the Pan European Game Information Organisation.

According to the PEGI website, the goals of the organisation are almost identical to the goals of the BBFC, albeit focusing more on video games than on films. Quoting from their about page, PEGI aims "to help European parents make informed decisions on buying computer games." Also similarly to the BBFC, PEGI regulates the content of video games through several different age ratings that determine the kind of content that is allowed/contained within the game. The website also notes that "the PEGI rating considers the age suitability of a game, not the level of difficulty", meaning they only regulate the potentially inappropriate content of games rather than their difficulty level. The ratings used by PEGI are as follows:

• PEGI 3
• A game that is rated as PEGI 3 "is considered suitable for all age groups". Any games with this rating cannot contain anything that could frighten a young child, and only allows comical/cartoonish violence. Additionally, no bad language may be used. Quite obviously, this age rating also prevents the use of drugs and sex within the game.
  
• 
  PEGI 7
• The PEGI 7 rating is very similar to the PEGI 3 rating, although slightly more relaxed. Games with this rating are allowed potentially frightening content as well as mild forms of violence (listed on the website as "implied, non-detailed or non-realistic".) All other regulations still apply.

• PEGI 12
• 
  The next classification up is the PEGI 12 rating, which allows slightly more graphic violence than the previous two ratings and is the first rating to allow any kind of sexual innuendo/posturing or mild bad language. Despite this, any actual sexual content is still prohibited and violence must still be toned down.

• PEGI 16
• 
  According to the website, this classification is for games where "the depiction of violence (or sexual activity) reaches a stage that looks the same as [real life]." This allows for more graphic violence and sexual content, although still preventing the use of outright sex, whilst also allowing things such as extreme bad language and drug-use.

• PEGI 18
• 
  The final and most relaxed age rating is the PEGI 18 rating, which is for games that would only be suitable for adults. The content of a PEGI 18 game contains either "gross violence", "violence towards defenseless characters", "glamorisation of [illegal drugs]" and "explicit sexual activity".
  

In addition to these age ratings, games that have been rated by PEGI will also have content descriptors somewhere on the box in order to show to potential buyers what will be contained within the game. These descriptors often decide what kind of age rating a game will get. These descriptors are:

• Violence
• A game with this descriptor contains some sort of violence. This could be non-realistic cartoony violence for PEGI 7 games or extremely graphic violence for PEGI 18 games.
• Bad Language
• This descriptor informs a buyer that the game contains some use of bad language, with the specifics depending on the age rating of the game.
• Fear
• A fear descriptor on a game's cover means that the game contains potentially frightening content, whether this be things that might scare young children or genuinely disturbing horror sequences in older-rated games.
• Gambling
• If a game has the gambling descriptor, then gambling has been depicted and usually encouraged within the game. Whilst older games could have this descriptor and be rated PEGI 12/16, a change has been made recently in 2020. Any game with this classification is now automatically rated PEGI 18.
• Sex
• The sex descriptor is used if a game contains either sexual innuendo/posturing or actual sexual content depending on the age rating of the game. A buyer will have to use this in combination with the age rating of a game to determine whether or not the game may contain actual depictions of sex.
• Drugs
• Obviously, if a game has the Drugs descriptor, the game has some depiction of illegal drugs. According to the website, "games with this content descriptor are always PEGI 16 or PEGI 18."
• Discrimination
• If a game has the discrimination descriptor, this means that the game has some depiction of some kind of discrimination, including potentially racism, sexism, homophobia or transphobia. Games with this kind of content are "always restricted to a PEGI 18 rating".
• In-Game Purchases
• The final descriptor for games relates less to the actual content of the game itself and more to the potential exploitation of children with access to their parents credit cards. This descriptor informs someone that the game contains some form of in-game purchases; "digital goods or services [bought] with real-world currency.

By regulating games with all of these ratings and descriptors, a potential buyer will know exactly what kind of age range the game is rated for and will therefore know best whether or not the game is suitable for them/the person they're buying for. This is brilliant to protect children from witnessing potentially traumatising or inappropriate content such as depictions of sex or violence.

Creative Industries Council

Along with all of these regulatory bodies and the frameworks that they operate under, there's a larger forum that aids somewhat in the regulation of these varying sectors of the creative industries - the Creative Industries Council. After quite a bit of research into the council's website, I found that they described themselves as "a forum of government, creative businesses and other creative organisations", implying that the Ci
C provides a place for these different regulatory bodies and creative companies to talk about topics relating to the creative industries. This idea is supported by the majority of the content of the website, which happens to be a number of different posts talking about either news within the creative industries or facts and figures from different sectors supported by sources such as the BFI.

With this in mind, however, it was incredibly difficult to find much linking the Creative Industries Council to regulation and the regulatory bodies mentioned above. In fact, I could only find a single mention of regulation on their entire website. On their about page, the council states that they "[focus] on areas where there are barriers to growth of UK creative sectors", which includes "regulation". This leads me to believe that the council supports regulation by focusing on how regulation could impact the potential growth of the creative industries, most notably the film industry and the gaming industry (due to potential lost sales from games being refunded by angry parents for inappropriate content).

Conclusion

To conclude, there are a great number of different regulatory bodies that support varying sectors of the creative industries, aiming to give the products within the economy better regulation and guidance in order to prevent inappropriate or potentially harmful content from reaching sensitive ears such as children or victims of crime/abuse.