Showing films in class

[2madboys]

Hope someone can help. My DS (year 7) was recently shown a YouTube film in English which does not have a rating. We watched this and think it's completely inappropriate for this age group and would probably be a 15 if it had a certificate. Can any of you point me to any guidelines you have for what you can/cannot show. We were not asked permission before the film was shown. Thanks.

Interesting. I occasionally show films (languages), and only show them if the rating is appropriate, but even so go thru' like a hawk to check in advance if anything that might offend or upset.
For example, showed a French spy comedy to a Y8 group, age was fine, but there were some scenes that I had to fast forward, one with hints of sado masochistic sex and another where the dopey spy shot a muezzin because the noise irritated him - culturally not appropriate. I have watched this film with my own DC, but a home setting is different to a classroom setting, so would expect the teacher to err on the side of caution and sensitivity.

I don't think there are any guidelines. Teachers don't have to abide by age ratings (legally) but they should probably seek parental consent if they wanted to show a whole film that was rated higher than the age group. I think that's just common sense rather than a fast rule though.

If you think the content was inappropriate, you could complain to the school.

I've been surprised at some films that have been rated 12 recently, so thinking the film would have been a 15 doesn't mean it would have been.

Thanks. We have complained to the school. Things have been delayed as the teacher in question has gone off sick since we spoke to them. There is a meeting with him and the Head and Deputy in Friday morning (if he's back). There are a whole host of other issues with this teacher, including him taking DS out of class (for the whole lesson) to ask him why he thought the film was 'bad'. I think ours will probably be amongst a long list of complaints.

As Noble says, teachers do not have to abide by ratings. If they can demonstrate that the film was shown as a way of enhancing the learning then I'm fairly sure they can do whatever suits. I showed a trailer of a 12 rated film to my yr 7s this week and didn't seek parental consent even though some of the students are not yet 12.