Music Video Regulation

Music Video Regulation

BBFC regulate music videos standing for British Board of Film Classification. They regulate music videos through Age Ratings An age rating is a guidance for the audience and the guardian of the viewer to suggest whether it is a suitable film or not.

In the interview with Krissi Murison, associate editor of the Sunday Times on the Today Programme (Radio 4), she stated that "[regulation of music video] would work with the constant parental supervision but in real life I'm not convinced".
Another option is full censorship, however, censorship of music videos only promotes that song instead of deterring them from watching it, for example, The Prodigy's Smack My B***h Up (uncensored version) has 1,940,869 views where as the censored version has about 4,000 views.
A different take onto the situation is that instead of censoring everything, banning and preventing everything the other option is to just have open relationships with the children, by keeping them fully aware of the internet and the videos that it has on it, this removes the 'coolness' of censored videos by having the right amount of exposure.
One example of a banned music video was M.I.A. - Born Free probably because the video features the mass genocide of gingers. This video was banned off of YouTube and was only viewable on Vevo, this is due to its severely racist themes and tendencies within. The ideological concerns with is are racism, a crime that is contemporarily being combatted by a lot of organisations.
Another banned music video was Robin Thicke's Blurred Lines, a song I had no intention of listening to, however, due to its controversy I felt obliged to watch the video to see what the fuss was all about, after the helium balloons spelling out "Robin Thicke Has A Big D**k" I realised.
Lily Allen mocked Thicke's helium balloon exhibition and spelled out "Lily Allen Has A Baggy P***y" in her song "Hard Out Here" and critics called her out on it.
Later on Lily Allen caused controversy again with her song "Our Time" as MTV wanted a clean version. Lily Allen responded.
"MTV want to ban the 'Our Time' video during the daytime, unless they get a clean edit that show you a) NOT DRINKING FROM A FLASK and b) NOT DISPLAYING ANTISOCIAL BEHAVIOUR FROM DRINKING BY FIGHTING WITH THE HOT DOG. I told the label we are NOT making a clean version of the video."
and I stand by Lily Allen's statement, this video shows mild taboo that everyone is familiar with, this is in fact quite comical, Thicke's uncensored video isn't. M.I.A.'s version isn't. The Prodigy's video is not.

In my opinion regulation of such abundance is impossible, even though I wouldn't want my younger siblings watching the mass genocide of gingers but there is nothing stopping them from claiming to be over 18. I think the only potential solutions are 1) not hiding anything, just having the age rating as a warning but having an open relationship with the younger audiences.