• Ten new members join the existing BBFC Youth Panel, building on the organisation’s continued youth work to ensure classification policy reflects young people’s views and opinions
• Successful applicants were chosen following a large number of responses to recruitment advertising to 15-17 year olds
• New recruits were briefed on the BBFC’s latest research and attended a screening of Cocaine Bear

Two years after the launch of the BBFC Youth Panel, ten young people joined 11 existing members to take its total to 21. This expansion builds on the success of the Youth Panel and the organisation’s continued commitment to reflect the youth voice.

The chosen candidates answered a call for recruitment earlier this year, which invited applications from 15-17 year olds specifically. This comes after several existing members expressed a keen desire to continue their involvement, with the age limit being extended to 21 accordingly.

The BBFC Youth Panel meets termly, combining in-person and virtual sessions. Their involvement across these sessions will inform classification issues and decisions, as well as feed into other educational and outreach work to ensure policy reflects the needs of young people.

Panel members will be given the opportunity to learn about the role of the BBFC in the film and entertainment industry, meet with other industry professionals, make connections, and create their own content for official BBFC channels.

Sarah Peacock, Compliance and Education Manager at the BBFC, said: “The BBFC’s Youth Panel plays a vital role in helping us to hear the concerns of young people around classifying content, and the members ensure we keep our finger on the pulse. I am so delighted to welcome the new members to our Youth Panel, and can’t wait to work with them over the coming months and years.”

The newly expanded panel came together for the first time in March, with members travelling from all across the UK to the BBFC offices in Central London. Panellists were briefed on the latest developments in classification and research, and were offered the opportunity to take part in a qualitative project later this year, contributing to the Guidelines review.

Youth Panel members also attended a special screening of Cocaine Bear (Elizabeth Banks, 2023), with their views being sought on its classification.

Kai, a Youth Panel member from the new intake, wrote of his experience: “It was great to see the amount of input we were able to offer, and how much the panel leaders cared about our views.”

Find out more about the BBFC’s Youth Panel members.