 Irish
video rental stores and other outlets face fines for supplying children
with DVDs classified for older viewers.
Legislation makes it an offence for the first time to breach film
classification certificates in over-the- counter rentals and sales and
offenders can be fined up to €2,000 or even jailed for three years.
It means younger DVD library members may be asked to provide proof of
their age if they try to rent a film with an age specific rating such as
12A, 15A, 16 or 18 and could be refused certain films even if they have
parental permission to view it at home.
The laws also make changes to the Film Censor's Office which is now
called the Irish Film Classification Office and no longer has powers to
ban a film outright [A bit
hard to believe! Somebody should try resubmitting Manhunt 2 to test this
out].
Censor John Kelleher, who becomes director of film classification,
welcomed the move, which he said reflected the profound changes in
Ireland's recent past. We have moved far away from the nanny state
moral guardian censorship of yesteryear towards an acceptance of the
general principle that, in a mature society, adults should be free,
subject to the law, to make their own choices.
Today, we don't censor, we classify. We don't decline to explain or
justify our decisions. Rather, we welcome the fact that we can provide
the public, and parents, with age-related classification and consumer
advice. We have gone from stop sign to signpost.
The censor still has a role in protecting under-18s, however, and his
powers in that area have been strengthened with specific reference in
the law to his duty to apply restrictive classifications where a film is
likely to cause harm to children.
Much of the existing law, the 85-year-old Censorship of Film Act of
1923, survives and the censor still has to take into consideration
scenes that render a film indecent, obscene or blasphemous or
would tend to inculcate principles contrary to public morality.
As part of the changes, a scale of fees is being introduced to ease the
cost of applying for classification for independent film makers, foreign
movie distributors and art house films that get a very limited cinema
release. Instead of paying €12 per minute of film for every copy
distributed to a cinema, they will pay €3.
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