cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 
Anonymous User
Not applicable

Age rating errors?

There may be some typos in this post as I am doing this on my iPod but recently Age rating errors have been made. E.g Legends of Tommorow is apparently 18 yet it airs at 8pm not 10pm when 18 rated programmes can be shown

16 REPLIES 16
SeeMoreDigital
Legend 5
Legend 5

Indeed...

 

It's much the same with Arrow (TV-14) which is broadcast at 20:00, Bones (TV-14), Limitless (TV-14), Elementary (TV-14), Blindspot (TV-14)

 

US FCC Guidelines state: -

TV-14 – (Parents Strongly Cautioned) means that the show may be unsuitable for children under 14. V, S, L or D may accompany a rating of TV-14.

 

So such content would equate to age 15 in our country - at worse 😉

Anonymous User
Not applicable

I think it is actually PG or 12 here so I don't know how they made the error

commanda6
Legend 5
Legend 5

Hi  @Anonymous User @SeeMoreDigital

 

I think this is largely to do with the fact that the UK doesn't have its own equivalent age rating for TV 14.

 

Most US content which is shown in the UK isn't actually given an age rating by the relevant bodies in the UK until the DVDs/Blu-rays come out , which means that while the show is on TV, it is treated as unrated, which means to be on safe side NOWTV give it a certificate of 18 to make sure that it can't be watched by those who shouldn't be watching it because while the shows are technically unrated until the home video discs come out. A show like Arrow is not suitable for children because it is quite violent.  Arrow is usually given a certificate of 15 when the home video discs, out although season one was certificate 12.

 

for stuff like game of thrones, the relevant certificate is rather obvious and has pretty much the same certificate regardless of country.

 

 


I do not work for Now . I am simply a Now customer trying to help I am a Community Contributor This means that I know a lot about the service. But just like you I am still a customer. This means I cannot help you with issues that would involve looking into your account directly. A member of the now TV forum team or live chat will need to assist you with these issues.
Anonymous User
Not applicable

I don't think you're getting the point NowTV actually give some programmes and empty rating like Grantchester. Also game of thrones is different as that always airs at 10

Anonymous User
Not applicable

I've asked NOW TV to fix the issue several times and they've made no head-way, it's very frustrating to not know the rating for shows airing after 9pm. If they're rated 18 then we simply don't watch them as a family, Hooten and the Lady is rated 18, yet I'd imagine the content warrants no more than a 12.

 

The main reason for the omission of ratings is of course money, the BBFC provide rating services to video-on-demand content providers and research has shown that consumers trust the advice when watching on-line content.

 

I know there's usually warnings if the show contains strong language, sex or violence, but you've missed out warnings for sexual violence for shows like An American Horror Story and others in the past.

 

Why you can't devise your own ratings system is beyond me? You only need it with TV shows as the BBFC have done most of the heavy lifting with movies. Customers are missing out on shows because they're not rating properly and are not getting the most from the service.

Anonymous User
Not applicable

Is there any update regarding this matter? Even if Sky or NOW TV don't invest in their own ratings, a note in the episodes' description would be valuable to customers who want family friendly viewing. We often do have notes when episodes contain strong language, sex or violence, but notes statting the content is suitable for families would be equally as useful.

Jason-C
Community Administrator

Hi @Anonymous User,

 

Thanks for flagging this.

 

All Entertainment episodes have a designated rating. However, what we do is take the highest individual episode rating and surface that on the show page. This means there may be some episodes rated 12 or 15, but if one episode is rated 18, then the whole show will display the 18 rating. This is something we're already looking into, where we may try to display the individual episode ratings instead.

 

Hooten and the Lady is designated an 18 - this is correct.

 

We do not use the BBFC ratings for Sky Cinema or Entertainment content. The ratings displayed are either formulated by compliance teams within Sky, or delivered directly by the studios themselves. This can include the "Unrated" rating, whereby it has no official certificate (for Parental PIN settings we default these to 18 to be on the safe side) but we try to minimise these where we can.

 

We resolved the past issue where Sky had incorrectly applied 18 ratings to 15-rated content. It may still take some time to trickle through to older content - if there are any individual episodes you think are incorrect, please let us know.

 

What sort of further information would you like to see that would inform your viewing decisions as a family? For example, videogames in the UK use PEGI, which has a picture system - would something like that be useful, or too much?

 

Thanks,

Jason

Andy
Legend 5
Legend 5

@Jason-C

 

Hope you don't mind me butting in. Whilst I appreciate Sky/NOW may be more cautious in their ratings than the BBFC is with home video market, I still can't understand why some shows like The Flash S1, Madam Secretary S1, Zoo etc are rated 18. Even things like Blacklist, The Last Ship, Enfield Haunting which ramp up the violence and/or threat level seems to be pushing it a bit.

 

If it is just an odd episode that is pushing the whole listing up then it would be good to look at individual listings.

 

It seems a shame for teenagers with parental controls set at 15 to have 100-odd episodes of Modern Family (12 at most, surely?) restricted if it's just one or two that the compliance team judge inappropriate.

 

The issue also reduces the potential effectiveness of the Parental Control settings, as if parents have to keep entering the PIN for children when they ask to watch an episode of Modern Family, either the parent will get fed up and turn the controls off or the teenager will simply watch the parent entering the PIN on the box and then do it themselves from then on.

Jason-C
Community Administrator

Thanks @Andy

 

Not at all, we appreciate the feedback! 🙂

As I say, we're investigating having the ratings per episode, which would hopefully fix a lot of what you describe below.

 

That said, especially for Box Sets, what do you feel is the best course of action in the following example: If you had ten episodes in a show, eight of which are 15-rated, two which are 18. Would you flag the show as a whole as a 15 - with the knowledge that more than one episode is unsuitable? There are many shows with a mix of mature themes, violence, etc. which can vary greatly by episode.

 

DVDs also have one overall rating, and the logic we currently employ is similar. We do err on the side of caution, as it's most important to us that parents and guardians can use the Parental PIN with confidence, but understand it'd be improved by having the individual ratings considered.

 

I'll also do what I can in relation to the shows you mentioned, in case there are older episodes which haven't been updated since the bug fix.

 

Thanks,

Jason