Music Video Regulation:

The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) regulate music videos. They do this through the use of age ratings. An age rating is a guideline for an audience and the guardians of viewers as a suggestion for what is or isn't suitable for someone for their age group.

The associate editor of the Sunday Times, Krissi Murison, was interviewed about music video regulation on Radio 4's Today Programme. She said that to regulate music videos it could work with parent supervision if it was constant, although she's not fully convinced.

Full censorship?

Alternatively, full censorship of music videos could be introduced. However, it seems that there are loopholes to the recent introduction of this as it is a problem for artists since censorship can reduce their exposure. For example, when Rihanna's music video for her song Bitch Betta Have My Money was released it was censored so much that only users with a YouTube account who had verified they were aged 18 or over could view it. This meant normal internet viewers could not see the music video or hear the song whilst watching it. This resulted in the eventual introduction of warning signs added before the video which allowed normal users to see the video. Although there is an element of censorship it makes it pointless since anyone of any age can still watch the video.

One example when censorship has been implemented to the extreme was on the music video for M.I.A's song Born Free. It included the mass genocide of ginger people. This resulted in the video completely being banned from YouTube, which meant it could only be seen on Vevo. This could be because of it possibly being viewed as having racist themes.

The blurred lines of regulation:

Another example of extreme censorship was in relation to the very controversial music video for Robin Thicke's, T.I.'s and Pharell's collaboration "Blurred Lines." In the uncut version of the video it featured topless models. This resulted in it being removed from YouTube as a result of it violating it's terms in relating to nudity. However, it was later restored, but with an age restriction proving once again that censorship can be devalued. A second clean version was also uploaded on Robin's YouTube channel, possibly as a result of the backlash.

Lily Allen responded to Blurred Lines with her music video for her first single from her most recent album called "It's Hard out Here." Many see this as a feminist anthem rebelling against misogynistic views such as those expressed in Robin's video. In response to his balloons featured in the video which spelled “Robin Thicke has a big dick,” she used satire to express her negative views on it by including balloons in her video which spelled "Lily Allen has a baggy pussy."

Lily Allen also caused controversy in relation to censorship for herself later on for the music video for her third single, "Our Time." This is because MTV said they wanted a clean version of it. Lily responded to this by saying, "MTV want to ban the 'Our Time' video during the daytime, unless they get a clean edit that shows 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."

My thoughts:

I agree with what Lily is saying because compared to other music videos it only shows mild taboo in a comical and satirical light which most people are used to anyway. I think that this research proves complete/extreme censorship is impossible. This is usually because of the artist's rebelling against it. Although there are certain themes in music videos like nudity I wouldn't want younger people seeing so I feel like age restrictions should be strict. I think this would be a suitable solution.