Films that disobeyed one of the Ten Commandments, blasphemy, generate the most complaints to the Film and Publication Board, writes Linda Daniels in The Star.
The board's annual report for 2005/06 showed that 75 members of the public wrote to the FPB commenting on the classification given to 36 films.
A large number of complainants believed that blasphemy warnings in films were inadequate.
"Special mention is made regarding blasphemy in the classification of films on the FPB website, but complainants do not find this sufficient as they are not specifically mentioned in the warnings, except under the prejudice category.
"Guidelines have been developed in this respect and will be subjected to the public-feedback process," says the report.
Ten complaints were received by the board relating to the inappropriate mix of trailers at cinemas. Cinemas may only flight trailers that have the same or a lower age rating than the main feature.
Another common complaint was that under-aged children were allowed into cinemas to watch movies with a high age restriction.
In an effort to combat this problem, the FPB said it would be appointing more compliance monitors in the next financial year.
In the past, the board's compliance unit has been overstretched, with only four monitors for the entire country. The number of monitors has now been increased to seven. Currently two of the monitors oversee an extra province each.
Click here to read the full report, posted on iol.co.za
