Age rating logos on DVDs and tapes, country by country

Nearly every tape and disc sold in a shop carries an age rating, and many carry several. A disc sold across Scandinavia can have four boards' marks on the back, and a UK disc often has an Irish one beside the British one. The marks also changed over the years, so an old tape can carry a symbol nobody prints any more. This page goes through the boards you will meet most, what their marks mean, and how to record them.

How to record a rating

A release in the home video catalog has a Classification field, and each row in it has a Type and a Rating. Type is the board. It offers 19 boards written as "Board (Country)", such as "BBFC (United Kingdom)" or "FSK (Germany)", and you can type one that isn't on the list. Rating is the mark as printed: "15", "PG-13", "MA15+".

Add one row for each board on the box. A Nordic disc rated in Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland gets four rows.

Two things don't go in this field:

• "Not Rated" or "Unrated" on an American box. These aren't ratings any board gave, and EK_ made the point on the old forum that the MPAA has no such rating. Write it in the notes. (Some contributors wanted it in the classification field; the forum never settled it.)
• The BBFC reference number printed under a UK symbol. That is an identifying code; see DVD codes explained.

Many imported entries say just "BBFC" or "MPAA" in Type. They weren't rewritten when the board list arrived. Pick the full name from the list when you are editing one anyway.

United Kingdom (BBFC)

The British Board of Film Classification, called the British Board of Film Censors until 1985. Its current video marks are U (everyone), PG, 12, 15, 18 and R18 (adult material sold only in licensed shops). 12A is a cinema rating; a disc of a 12A film is rated 12.

Older tapes have two marks you won't see now. Uc was a video-only mark for programmes particularly suited to young children, dropped in 2009. And tapes from before 1985 often have no BBFC mark at all, because video classification only became law with the Video Recordings Act 1984. Collectors call these "pre-certs". If a pre-cert has no rating, leave the field empty.

An E symbol means the distributor considers the programme exempt. It isn't a BBFC certificate, so treat it like "Not Rated" and put it in the notes.

Ireland (IFCO)

The Irish Film Classification Office, the Film Censor's Office before 2008. Discs sold in Ireland and the UK often carry both boards' marks. IFCO's video marks are G, PG, 12, 15 and 18. The cinema ratings 12A and 15A turn up on posters and some packaging, but they are cinema categories.

United States (MPAA)

The Motion Picture Association of America, now called the MPA. Its marks are G, PG, PG-13 (since 1984), R and NC-17 (since 1990, when it replaced X). Very old releases may show M (1968 to 1970) or GP (1970 to 1972), the two names PG had before it was PG.

Television box sets often carry the TV Parental Guidelines instead: TV-Y, TV-Y7, TV-G, TV-PG, TV-14 and TV-MA. That board is on the list as "TV Parental Guidelines (United States)".

Canada

English Canada uses the Canadian Home Video Rating System (CHVRS): G, PG, 14A, 18A, R, and E for exempt. Quebec rates separately through the Régie du cinéma: G, 13+, 16+ and 18+. A bilingual Canadian disc usually carries both, so give it two rows.

Germany (FSK)

The FSK rates at 0, 6, 12, 16 and 18. Older discs print the rating as words, such as "Freigegeben ab 12 Jahren", or "Keine Jugendfreigabe" for 18. Newer ones use a coloured square with the number. Record the number either way: Type "FSK (Germany)", Rating "12".

Some uncut horror releases in Germany carry no FSK rating at all and a SPIO/JK mark instead, from the industry's legal panel. That board isn't on the list; type "SPIO/JK (Germany)".

Netherlands (NICAM)

The Kijkwijzer system, run by NICAM. Ages are AL (all ages), 6, 9, 12 and 16 on most discs, with small pictograms beside them for what the film contains: violence, fear, sex, discrimination, drug use, coarse language. Record the age as the rating and list the pictograms in the notes if you want them on the entry.

The Nordic countries

Nordic discs carry several boards at once, which is where most mistakes come from. Read each mark against its country:

• Denmark (Media Council for Children and Young People, on the list as MCCYP): A, 7, 11, 15.
• Sweden (Statens medieråd): Btl (for all), 7, 11, 15.
• Norway (Norwegian Media Authority, NMA): A, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18.
• Finland changed boards in 2012. Before that, the VET (VET/SFB on the list) used S/T for all ages and K- marks such as K-7, K-11, K-13, K-15 and K-18. Since 2012, MEKU uses S, 7, 12, 16 and 18, with small content symbols beside them. The K- marks tell you a Finnish disc is from before 2012.

Australia and New Zealand

The Australian Classification Board (ACB) uses G, PG, M, MA15+, R18+ and X18+. MA15+ and above are legally restricted.

New Zealand's OFLC labels are colour coded. Green and yellow labels (G, PG, M) are advice only. Red labels are restrictions enforced by law: R13, R15, R16, R18, and RP13 or RP16, where younger viewers may watch with a parent.

Elsewhere

Also on the list: CNC (France), with Tous publics, -12, -16 and -18; ICAA (Spain); Visto Censura (Italy), whose VM14 and VM18 mean forbidden under 14 and under 18; and ClassInd (Brazil), with L (all ages), 10, 12, 14, 16 and 18.

The old Filmogs wiki also covered four boards that aren't on the list yet. Type them in the same style:

• KMRB (South Korea): All, 12, 15, 18, and Restricted.
• BFC (Singapore): G, PG, PG13, NC16, M18, R21.
• NMHH (Hungary): All ages, 6, 12, 16, 18.
• SVV (Switzerland): ages from 0+ to 18+.

If your disc has a board that isn't here, type its usual short name and the country in brackets, and copy the mark exactly as printed. Someone can add it to the list later.

Photograph the back

A rating mark is easy to misread from a scan and hard to argue about without one. If you have the box, photograph the back so the marks are readable, and add the picture to the entry. The other marks on the same panel, from Dolby badges to the UK's VPRC symbol, are in logos on a DVD or VHS box.