Thesis- I believe that there was different motivations by different people, for example; The conservative government used the Video nasties as a scapegoat of which they put their problems upon, whilst Mary Whitehouse opposed video nasties to protect the age group of 12-16 from moral decline and had used her contacts as also started a pressure group to try and achieve her goals. They used censorship to try minimise the distribution of the videos.
People had VHS players in most of their homes, and the reason for the popular status of the VHS tape is that it was easy to copy. Video Nasties were mainly sold in sweet shops and Garages where children were able to buy them, there was no regulation on the videos which meant that anyone was able to get hold of them. Many people aged 12-16 saw video nasties as it was a social set standard that if you didn't watch it, you were branded as a geek and socially unpopular. This set the tone of video nasties becoming the highlight of parties and social events, The access of VHS tapes meant that the video nasties were able to be copied which also contributed to the spread. Another reason why video nasties were so popular to view was that the thrill of it being forbidden enticed people to see it and that the experience was a badge of honour. The BBFC had started to have video nasties under censorship by the early 1980's, this was to protect people from the content of which the video nasties had, for example; murder, cannibalism, rape.
Video Nasties being labelled imitable and physiologically scarring, this gave the Conservative Government led by Margret Thatcher moral panic to use the video nasties as scapegoats for their economical problems. such as power cuts and unemployment. The worry for the government was that the public might imitate the actions of which is shown in the video nasties, although Margret Thatcher had not seen a video nasty but has contributed to condemning them.
Mary Whitehouse and Margaret Thatcher joined in partnership due to similar views regarding politics and to uphold the christian traditional views.Christian views also stated their hate of the demonic and satan possessive films.
Mary Whitehouse used her allies in right wing newspapers such as in the Daily mail where an article was titled " Rape of our children's minds", this propaganda was used with videos and the press to try and turn minds against video nasties.They also tried to link video nasties to other problems by stating "Experts link street riots and child abuse to diet of filth fed to our youth". Another article was titled "Sadism for 6 year olds", this was due to a claim that a group of 6 year olds had said that they had watched 17 video nasty films between them. Another fact that two thirds of children in birmingham claimed to have seen films that don't even exist.
Mary Whitehouse would meet with high police figures to discuss campaigns to ban video nasties, this led to the creation of the Obscene publication squad, which was a police squad. Due to the creation of the obscene publication squad, the arrest of shopkeepers and distributors were made for seeking video nasties, but the shopkeepers were unaware of what they could sell and couldn't sell. Distributors were sent to stand trial at The Old Bailey.
In 1984 the video recording act was activated, this act is the age certification of films to prevent certain people of ages from viewing inappropriate content.
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