Canadian Movie Ratings: British Columbia
In 1913, British Columbia began looking into rating movies for the citizens of the province. Today, they have a classification office with employed classifiers who provide British Columbia movie ratings using the following insignia:
| Rating | Description |
|---|---|
| G | All ages. The contents of these motion pictures are suitable for viewing by all ages. |
| PG | All ages. Parental guidance advised. Theme or content may not be suitable for all children. |
| 14A | Anyone under 14 years of age must be accompanied by an adult. Parents cautioned. These films may contain violence, coarse language, and/or sexually suggestive scenes. |
| 18A | Anyone under 18 years of age must be accompanied by an adult. Parents strongly cautioned. Will likely contain explicit violence, frequent coarse language, sexual activity and/or horror. |
| R | No one under the age of 18 may view under any circumstances. Content not suitable for minors. May contain scenes of explicit sex and/or violence. However, the film classification office considers these films to have some artistic, historical, political, educational or scientific merit. |
| Adult | No one under 18 may view under any circumstances. May contain explicit sexual scenes and/or violence. However, the classification office considers these films to be tolerable to the community. |
Based on research prior to classifying a title, if a movie appears to clearly fall into one of these categories it is typically viewed by 2 people. If the film appears to be more controversial, as many as 5 classifiers may view it.
The British Columbia Film Classification office's movie ratings are enforced through provincial legislation. However, the office only provides movie ratings for theatrical movie releases. They have no jurisdiction for movies on video other than "Adult" sexually oriented videos.
British Columbia Film Classification
PO Box 9244
Victoria BC V8W 9J2
(604) 320-1667
Fax: (250) 920-7181
www.bcfilmclass.com
