UK tries to protect kids by rating music videos like movies

While David Cameron's broadband filters are doing an admirable job of shielding Britain's young eyes from adult content, the government reckons it can do more. That's why, as from October, it'll treat music videos like movies and begin placing age ratings on them. The Prime Minister announced the new program during a speech yesterday, noting that the government will work with the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) to "protect [..] children from some of the graphic content music videos" hosted on YouTube and Vevo.

The pilot, which will run for three months with assistance from Google, has also been backed by the the three biggest music labels in the UK -- Sony, Warner Music and Universal -- letting them assign three age-suitable labels (12, 15 or 18) to videos with adult-themed content. It's not yet known how it will be enforced, but parents will be provided with an option to block videos according to their ratings. Whether they'll choose to enable the feature remains to be seen (many haven't enabled the so-called 'porn filter' on their home internet connections), but we're sure enterprising teenagers will find a way to navigate around it anyway.

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