Қатаң порнографияға арналған BBFC рейтингісі (R18)

BBFC content rating used for hardcore pornographic films

R18 (Restricted 18) is a film or video classification given by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC). It is intended to provide a classification for works that do not breach UK law, but exceed what the BBFC considers acceptable in the 18 category. In practice, this means hardcore pornography. Under the terms of the 1984 Video Recordings Act all non exempt videos sold or distributed within the UK must be given a certificate by the BBFC. The distributor must decide whether a video is exempt. Uncertificated recordings are not illegal, regardless of content (except where the content itself is illegal), but supply (i. e. sale, rental, loan or gift) of them is. The R18 certificate is the most restrictive of the certificates, allowing films in the category to be shown only in specially licensed cinemas, or sold in licensed sex shops; admission to R18 rated films or sale of R18 rated recordings is restricted to persons aged 18 years and over.

The R18 category was created in 1982 in response to the recommendations in 1979 of the Home Office Committee on Obscenity and Film Censorship chaired by Sir Bernard Williams. Originally, the R18 classification was only used for films featuring simulated sex only, but the BBFC found itself forced to award R18 certificates to hardcore films in 2000 after a series of legal appeals and a judicial review of those appeals. The introduction of the R18 certificate for hardcore films is widely seen by observers as a reaction to more liberal attitudes in British society to pornography, the de facto legalisation of the import of hardcore pornography (but not its sale) across EU member countries because of customs law harmonisation, and the widespread availability of unregulated pornography over the Internet. Most cuts made by the BBFC are in the R18 category (e. g., 13.6% of R18 videos were cut in 2011, compared with 7.5% for the 18 category, and 0.5% or less for other categories). On the BBFC website, R18 rated works are filtered out of the main public search (unless an option to show them is selected) as their titles frequently contain profanity and/or vulgar language.

Films given the R18 certificate may only be exhibited in licensed cinemas and can only be sold on physical media direct to the buyer in person in licensed sex shops. The BBFC do not have jurisdiction over content distributed via non physical media; however, in 2014 the Audiovisual Media Services Regulations 2014 amended the Communications Act 2003 to extend the statutory and legal obligations for the distribution of R18 content to "on demand" programme services, such as streaming media/video on demand over the internet or mobile phone networks and web based platforms. The revisions make it a criminal offence to not adequately restrict access to works rated R18 by the BBFC—or any work that would be likely to receive a R18 classification if it were submitted—to those aged over 18.

In 2004 a group of video distributors appealed to the Video Appeals Committee (VAC) against the BBFC's decision to award R18 certificates to 9 films that the distributors wished to be reclassified as 18. A press release issued by the BBFC on 20 July 2005 announced that the VAC had dismissed that appeal. The BBFC has previously granted 18 certificates for movies containing short scenes of unsimulated sex, such as Catherine Breillat's Romance (in 1999), Virginie Despentes's Baise Moi (in 2000), Patrice Chéreau's Intimacy (in 2001), Michael Winterbottom's 9 Songs (in 2004), short film compilation Destricted (in 2006), and in 2008 the hardcore version of Tinto Brass's Caligula was passed uncut for DVD with an 18. The Digital Economy Act 2017 includes powers to require age verification for pornographic Internet sites and the government accepted an amendment to allow the regulator to require ISPs to block access to non compliant sites. As the BBFC are expected to become the regulator, this has caused discussion about ISPs being required to block Internet pornography that would be prohibited under an R18 certificate, the prohibition of some of which is itself controversial.