Trained Content Assessor course

I recently attended the Trained Content Assessor course presented by the Australian Government’s Classification Board. The attendees ranged from TV producers, programmers, legal counsels, besides our content operations team. The course presenter, a former police detective, is now in his fifth year on the classification board.

Classification Board

You can only serve on the classification board for seven years. After the first three years you need to undergo an assessment to make sure you’re still fit for the job and then you can serve another four years. Members are people from the community – anyone can apply – so as to represent community standards.

Act, Code, Guidelines

• Act – In Australia we have the Commonwealth Publications, Films and Computer Games Act. It requires films and computer games to be classified prior to release and advertising.
• Code – Contained by the Act, the National Classification Code describes the classification categories (G, PG, M, MA 15+, R 18+, X 18+, and RC).
• Guidelines – Allowed by the Act as a tool for classifying films and computer games.

How to assess and classify content

1. Identify the classifiable element/s in the scene, of which there are 6: violence, sex, language, drug use, and themes
2. Assess the impact of the scene. The higher the impact the higher the classification, as illustrated by the classification hierarchy:  very mild – G, b. mild – PG, moderate – M, strong – MA 15+, high – R 18+, very high – RC (Refused Classification).
3. Now think about things that intensify or mitigate the impact. Consider: Verbal reference is usually less impactful than a visual reference. The context of the scene (e.g. a documentary, a sports match). Frequency and duration of what’s being shown. Cumulative effect. Purpose and tone of scene. The treatment (e.g. filming in black and white, or stylized mitigates impact whereas realism may intensify the impact. Also comedy can mitigate impact like Californication).
4. Decide on your classification, e.g. “R, Adult themes; Drug Use”. Themes would be something like Supernatural, Suicide, or Racial.

The course

We were supplied with a training handout and the classification guideline, and then shown a selection of movie and TV scenes featuring the “classifiable elements”. We were shown the most contentious stuff, where the board had difficulty reaching consensus on a classification. The examples were mostly from Australian TV shows but there was a foreign movie thrown in and a couple of US movies and TV shows (Californication, The Departed). You could leave the room if you found anything too offensive. Basically you had to classify and motivate your decision and the instructor advised on how this matched with the classification board’s decision.

For more information

http://www.classification.gov.au