- The 1990s saw public concern about the influence of videos over aspects such as violence increasing, most notable following the Jamie Bulger case, which the media claimed was linked to the film Child's Play 3.
- Subsequent enquires refuted this connection, but public opinion rallied behind calls for stricter regulation. This was supported in Parliament with a new act (the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994)introduced to the Video Recordings Act. It requires the Board to consider specific issues, and the potential for harm, when making video classification decisions.
- At the time that the new legislation was being discussed and implemented, the BBFC was being asked to look at a number of extremely violent and drug-filled films, which further fuelled the debate about media effects.
- While the Board waited to see what form the Criminal Justice Act would take, decisions on the video releases of a number of films were held up, although all five films were eventually classified, in some cases with additional cuts, reflecting the requirements of the new tests.
- Perhaps the film that provoked the most controversy at the time was Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers, whose video release was held up by its own distributor (despite having been classified by the BBFC) until 2001.
- In 1997 the BBFC's President, Lord Harewood, stepped down after 12 years in the job. His replacement, Andreas Whittam Smith, announced his intention to steer the BBFC towards a greater 'openness and accountability'.
- This included the publication of the BBFC's first set of classification guidelines in 1998, following a series of public 'roadshows' in which public views were canvassed and the launching of a BBFC website.
Digital Media
- The 1990s also saw rapid developments in the world of computer games, which seemed to become more realistic and sophisticated with each passing year. Although the majority of video games were automatically exempt from classification, those that featured realistic violence against humans or animals, or human sexual activity, did come under the scope of the Video Recordings Act.
- From 1994 the BBFC started to receive some of the stronger video games for formal classification, which necessitated a different way of examining (because it was impossible to see everything that might happen in a game).
- In 1997, for the first time, the BBFC refused a certificate to the game Carmageddon, on the grounds that it encouraged anti-social behaviour. This decision was later overturned on appeal, subject to the provison that the game must be fitted with a parental lock to prevent it being accessed by children.
1999, Robin Duval
Robin Duval became the Director on the retirement of James Ferman who had held the position since 1975.
- Standards continued to evolve, with due consideration of recent relevant research, shifts in public attitudes, and the developments in comparable media such as terrestrial, satellite and cable television and the internet.
- 1999 also saw the removal of the BBFC's controversial policy on oriental weaponry (most notably chainsticks), originally implemented by Stephen Murphy in the early 1970s but continued zealously by James Ferman. Whilst the refusal to allow sight of exotic - and potentially easily manufactured - weaponry had been a reaction to real concerns back in the 1970s a total prohibition on sight of such weapons was no longer considered necessary or particularly constructive. Such weapons were less prevalent than they had been in the past and information on them was in any case widely available in books, magazines and on the internet.
- Emphasis was accordingly changed from removing all evidence of unusual weapons towards a policy of being concerned about the glamorisation of any weapons (but especially knives), particularly at the junior categories.
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