Hodge urges amicable solution to BBFC/PEGI divide

The Rt Hon Margaret Hodge MP, Minister for Culture, Creative Industries and Tourism today urged both sides on the post-Byron age ratings split to work together on finding a "solution that everybody can buy into".

Speaking as one of the keynotes at the Westminster Media Forum's focus on the UK videogames industry, Hodge's comments came after a number of exchanges between representatives of the BBFC and PEGI camps in earlier sessions. "Can I just say something?" she asked the audience. "I do recognise, and completely understand, the strength of feeling on this issue.

"But I would absolutely urge all sides in this area - please try and prevent this from becoming simply a battle between two regulatory frameworks.

"Let's try and find a way through it, so we can find a shared solution that everybody can buy into," she added.

And she went on to warn the industry representatives in the room that the subject of videogame ratings was something that she received a lot of correspondence on.

"Child safety is a very, very important issue. I get more letters about this issue, than I probably do about anything else," she revealed.

"Your customers - my voters - are actually demanding that we act."

The Byron Review, published earlier in the year, recommended that the BBFC should take more responsibility for rating videogames in the UK, scaling back the role of the publisher-backed pan-European PEGI system in the process.

That particular recommendation is subject to a period of public consultation, for which the government will publish a framework shortly, Hodge said.