I agree that film censorship is motivated by fears about audiences and technologies as films are now moderated to a very high standard. During the 1980s, VHS tapes were becoming fashionable, which meant that people could watch films in their own house, however, these films were not regulated, which meant that people could watch almost anything.
During the 1980s, home vide become fashionable in the form of VHS tapes. These VHS tapes were unregulated and very easy to pirate, which meant that people had a wide access to violence, gore and rape. As these tapes were not regulated, children of any age could walk into a shop and buy these films., which meant that they would get used to violence and see it as normal, de-sensitising children, however, it could also be argued that video nasties creates awareness of tabooed themes such as rape.
During this time, there was an economic depression in the UK, which was causing moral panic and riots against the government. The government blamed these riots and moral panic on video nasties, which they thought were against the conservative government's political views. During this time, Mary Whitehouse created a group called 'Media Watch', which wanted to regulate the content that people could watch.
In 1984, after it was thought that a man killed his family because video nasties have de-sensitised him to violence, the BBFC decided to censor and regulate VHS tapes as well as cinema. This meant that people under a certain age could not buy certain films, for example, children under the age of 12 could not buy films that contained mild sex references of swear words.
In conclusion, I disagree with the censorship of films as I believe that people should be able to watch what they like, however I do agree with film regulation as children shouldn't be able to watch people kill other people as it could de-sensitise them and make them think that violence is normal and acceptable.
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