Film censorship is motivated by fears about audiences and technologies

Film censorship is motivated by fears about audiences and technologies

Film censorship is around for social and political reasons brought on by the government and to protect members of the public. Due to the developing technologies that allow piracy and for the films to be shared.

Home videos became popular in the 70’s, as it was easier and cheaper for people to stay at home and watch films. VHS was popular as the sound quality was much better than projection. Through format wars audiences decided they preferred the quality and the accessibility of vhs as cinema was quite expensive and there was an improved picture quality.  VHS was a lot easier to pirate and be shared. This meant that censorship did not exist, as people were able to get hold of the films and watch them anyway.

Video nasties came around in the 80’s when horror films became censored due to their graphic nature. The horror genre became banned due to moral panic and public outrage. Horror films were pirated and shared through VHS even though horror films had been censored due to the violent and gorey nature. The development of piracy was another reason why film censorship was introduced in an attempt to stop the moral panic.

Due to moral panic the right wing party set up the national viewers and listeners association set up by Mary Whitehouse. This was to protect the public from watching the gorey horror films in case they became influenced by them and attempted those events in real life. This was difficult as many of the censored films were pirated and still being viewed.

The BBFC gradually did end film censorship and home videos were left to the audiences’ decision with age guidelines in place to protect some of the younger audience members. As film censorship did not really exist this seemed the right decision to allow all previously censored films to be released.

Film censorship is motivated by audience fears and advancing technologies as technology stop film censorship from existing. Horror films now contain much more gore and horror then they did during censorship as audiences have become desensitized to the horror style, newer horror films now tend to push the boundaries of the horror genre in order to scare audiences.