Suffolk Digital Cinema Network

A Screen Near You in Suffolk

Child protection

All the films you rent from commercial distributors will have been classified by the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC). You must observe any age restrictions imposed by BBFC. You should clearly indicate BBFC classifications in your publicity material and at the venue. For more information about classification, see the BBFC website.

The situation regarding public screenings of material not classified by BBFC (such as, say, a short film by a local youth group) is more problematic. Strictly speaking, any such material should be classified by your district or borough council before screening to a public audience. (Members of a private club, or pupils at a school, etc, would not count as a 'public' audience.) The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) advises that even Network members holding a DCMS certificate of exemption from the Cinemas Act 1985 should not screen unclassified material without the approval of their licensing authority. The Network will consult the seven licensing authorities within Suffolk to see if a workable blanket arrangement can be negotiated.

You are advised to take particular care of child protection issues if you plan to run events at which children may be left unaccompanied by adults. In some circumstances, you might be deemed to be offering a level of childcare that would require you to register as a childcare provider and meet fairly onerous national standards for under eights' day care and childminding (click 'Sure Start'). To avoid this, you are advised to insist thatchildren under 5 are always accompanied by an adult; children aged 5-7 may not be left unaccompanied for more than two hours on any day. :

You should also make sure that you have enough responsible adult helpers on hand (a ratio of 1:8 is recommended for children under eight, 1:16 for children over eight), that all unaccompanied children are signed in and out by their parent or carer, and that you take an emergency contact number and details of any specific medical conditions that you might need to know about (such as food allergies).

If you regularly run screenings for unaccompanied children, you should be aware of best practice advice on the safe running of such events, such as that given in Keeping arts safe, a joint Arts Council England/NSPCC publication.

The Suffolk Area Child Protection Committee operates a voluntary training and accreditation scheme (S.A.F.E) for community groups that regularly work with children. Accreditation under this scheme can be helpful, since it sends a signal to parents and carers that your organization has considered the child protection risks that might arise from your activities, and taken reasonable steps to minimize them