Essay - "How far do changes to the regulation of media reflect broader social changes?"

The purpose of regulation is to protect the public from inappropriate or damaging content. So regulation is aiming to protect children and sensitive adults. Some could say regulation actually aims to control what we think and know in a sense that we are getting 'brainwashed'. Regulation has become more lenient since it has transferred from conservative to more on the liberal side. The BBFC used to censor movies but is now using age certification to rate movies into certain categories. OFCOM is a statutory organisation meaning it is owned by the government, it focuses on reactive regulation so it would ban certain shows or even worse, revoke the channel's license so all shows on that get cancelled. Not all media is considered equal; TV is more strict in terms of regulation sicne the government owns the OFCOM, the BBFC and PEGI are independent regulators so the regulation is more liberal than OFCOM. There should be a set moral standard but not for everything that can be considered because some things are subjective especially context some into play.
In terms of the BBFC, like I mentioned before, the BBFC were initially more conservative as their initial name was British Board Film Censors; their method of regulation was censorship. In the 1980s, 'video nasties' occurred; illegal home videos of banned movies were in the hands of the public. For example, Evil Dead was released during this time and the BBFC suggested the producers to cuts certain scenes out because at the time, it was considered too gruesome. On the other hand, the Texas Chainsaw Massacre was actually allowed to be released if it's rated X but certain councils wanted film to be banned which actually happened.
The BBFC rated Deadpool 15 whereas the Motion Picture Association of America rated the film R even though the UK film policy normally is known to give films higher ratings than the US. On the other hand, the BBFC rated Blue is the Warmest Colour 18 because it contain strong sex including lesbian and very strong language, even though Deadpool is similar but still got 15. Then reason why is that Deadpol is more comedic.