ABSTRACT

This chapter draws on archival research to consider media classification as cultural governance and production. Specifically, it examines how the idea of the adult – as a consumer, adjudicating perspective, and field of restricted content – has been inseparable in film classification from conceptions of young people’s pleasure, culture, and protection. Two sections consider the establishment and revision of minority by the British Board of Film Classification, and changing Australian limits on adult content and representations of youth sexuality, respectively. The chapter argues that the motility of ratings categories is central to the pragmatics and continuation of media classification as government.