Office of Film and Literature Classification (New Zealand)


The Office of Film and Literature Classification is an independent Crown entity established under Films, Videos, and Publications Classification Act 1993.
The Office is responsible for the national classification of all films, videos, publications, and some video games in New Zealand. The Chief Censor has the power to “call-in” publications that have not come to the Office – a publication is anything that has words or images on it. For instance, the Office has classified drink cans and camper vans.
For a history of legislation and censorship in New Zealand see the Office’s .
Any person may submit any publication for classification by the OFLC, with the permission of the Chief Censor. However, the Secretary for Internal Affairs, the Comptroller of Customs, the Commissioner of Police, and the Film and Video Labelling Body may submit publications for classification without the Chief Censor's permission. The courts have no jurisdiction to classify publications. If the classification of a publication becomes an issue in any civil or criminal proceeding, the court must submit the publication to the OFLC.
Any person who is dissatisfied with a decision of the OFLC may have the relevant publication, but not the OFLC's decision, reviewed by the Film and Literature Board of Review.
The Office also has a key role in providing information to the public about classification decisions and about the classification system as a whole. It conducts research and produces evidence-based resources to promote media literacy and enable people to make informed choices about the content they consume.

Labels

The FVPC Act gives the OFLC the power to classify publications into three categories: unrestricted, restricted, and "objectionable" or banned. Unrestricted films are assigned a green or yellow rating label. Restricted films are assigned a red classification label.
Since early 2013 some DVDs and Blu-rays released in New Zealand have had the rating label printed on the cover to prevent the removal of the label, which is illegal.
New Zealand has used a colour-coded labelling system since 1987. The colours are intended to resemble the messages conveyed by a traffic light: a green label means that nothing in the film, video or DVD should inhibit anyone from viewing it; a yellow label means proceed with caution because the film, video or DVD may have content that younger viewers should not see; and a red label means stop and ensure that no one outside the restriction views the film, video, DVD or computer game. It is an offense to supply age-restricted material to anyone under the age shown on the label.
The New Zealand classification system currently uses the following labels:
LabelNameDefinition
GeneralSuitable for general audiences.
Parental GuidanceParental guidance recommended for younger viewers.
MatureSuitable for mature audiences 16 years and up.
RP13Restricted to people 13 years of age and over, unless accompanied by a parent or guardian.
R13Restricted to people 13 years of age and over.
R15Restricted to people 15 years of age and over.
RP16Restricted to people 16 years of age and over, unless accompanied by a parent or guardian.
R16Restricted to people 16 years of age and over.
RP18Restricted to people 18 years of age and over, unless accompanied by a parent or guardian.
R18Restricted to people 18 years of age and over.
RestrictedRestricted to a particular class of people, or for particular purposes, or both, specified by the Office of Film and Literature Classification.

The RP18 rating is the newest rating, having been created in April 2017 specifically for the drama series 13 Reasons Why.
The Film and Video Labelling Body may award films, videos and DVDs an unrestricted classification of based on their Australian classification, or British classification if no Australian classification exists. The OLFC is the only body who may award restricted ratings.
Red labels have been available for non-film publications such as magazines and video games since 2005.

Classification law

The OFLC classifies material based on whether it is likely to be "harmful" or "injurious to the public good." Specifically : "a publication is objectionable if it describes, depicts, expresses, or otherwise deals with matters such as sex, horror, crime, cruelty, or violence in such a manner that the availability of the publication is likely to be injurious to the public good." In 2000 the Court of Appeal of New Zealand decided in Living Word Distributors Limited v Human Rights Action Group NZCA 179 that the collocation of the words "sex, horror, crime, cruelty or violence" tends to point to activity rather than to the expression of opinion or attitude. On this interpretation, the OFLC had jurisdiction to restrict or ban publications describing or depicting sexual activities, but not those describing only an attitude or opinion about sex. The same interpretation required publications to describe or depict horror activities, criminal activities, cruel activities, and violent activities, rather than just an opinion or attitude about those things, for the OFLC to be able to classify them.
The Court of Appeal explicitly ruled that the phrase "matters such as sex" is strongly indicative of sexual activities and does not include sexual orientation. This made it more difficult for the OFLC to restrict or ban publications that simply exploited the nudity of children or portrayed classes of people as inherently inferior, but did not show any of the specified types of activity, notwithstanding the fact the FVPC Act directs the censors to give "particular weight" to these things when deciding whether or not to restrict or ban a publication. It also made it difficult for the OFLC to restrict publications simply containing offensive language or to ban videos of persons taken without their knowledge or consent, such as "upskirt" videos, on the ground of invasion of privacy, again because neither type of publication shows any of the specified types of activity. In 2005, Parliament amended the FVPC Act, and commenced amendment of the Crimes Act, to restore the OFLC's jurisdiction over all of these matters except for publications that simply portray classes of people as inherently inferior.
Under the FVPC Act material that promotes, supports, or tends to promote or support the following is, by its nature, deemed objectionable :

The Censorship Compliance Unit of the Department of Internal Affairs is responsible for the enforcement of the FVPC Act.
The Government has a regulatory change to bring commercial video on demand content from services like Netflix and Lightbox under the Films, Videos, and Publications Classification Act 1993. Providers would be able to self-classify within a New Zealand framework.
Currently streaming services are not covered by the same law that cinema movies or DVDs are and that means various providers use information from other countries or create their own.

Case studies

13 Reasons Why

The Chief Censor Andrew Jack used his call-in power to classify the Netflix series 13 Reasons Why in 2017 and his successor David Shanks called-in the second series in 2018.
The Chief Censors were concerned that New Zealand audiences needed to be warned about rape and suicide in the seasons. New Zealand has the highest youth suicide rate in the OECD.
The series was given a specially created RP18 classification which means that someone under 18 must be supervised by a parent or guardian when viewing the series. A guardian is considered to be a responsible adult, for example a family member or teacher who can provide guidance.
The use of the call-in power meant Netflix was required to clearly display the classification and warning.

The March 15 attack publications

Chief Censor David Shanks called in the livestream video of the Christchurch mosque shootings on 15 March 2019. The OFLC classified the full 17 minute footage as objectionable on 18 March 2019 due to its depiction and promotion of extreme violence and terrorism.
A 74-page publication reportedly written by the alleged perpetrator of the Christchurch mosque shootings was also called in by Chief Censor David Shanks. It was officially classified as objectionable in New Zealand on 23 March 2019.
The publication was found to provide justification for the Christchurch mosque shootings and to promote further acts of murder, terrorist violence, and extreme cruelty against identified groups of people. The objectionable classification was not due to the racist and extremist views expressed in the publication but due to the high likelihood of serious and fatal harm resulting from the continued availability of the publication.
Both decisions were reviewed by The Film and Literature Board of Review which also found the publications to be objectionable for the same reasoning as the OFLC. The objectionable classification means it is illegal for the public in New Zealand to possess or distribute the publications without the express authority of the OFLC. The decisions of the OFLC and the Board of Review are only applicable to New Zealand and the publications continue to be legally available in other parts of the world.

A Star Is Born

2018's A Star Is Born was not classified by the OFLC when it released in New Zealand. It had been rated an M in Australia so was automatically cross-rated M in New Zealand by the Film & Video Labelling Body. At that stage, it carried a descriptive note ‘Sex scenes, offensive language and drug use.’ The Chief Censor required that the warning note be updated to include ‘suicide’ after receiving complaints from members of the public, including health care providers.
The method of suicide used in A Star Is Born is the most common method of suicide in NZ.
The Film & Video Labelling Body issued a new certificate to be displayed and alerted exhibitors to the note change so that they could update their information. Where possible, the distributor must update the label on all advertising.

Research

The Classification Office undertakes research about entertainment media content, media impacts, classification and censorship. Recent projects have addressed important gaps in our understanding of young New Zealanders experiences and views about sexual violence in entertainment media, and online pornography.
TitleYear of Publication
Growing Up with Porn2019
Breaking Down Porn2019
NZ Youth and Porn2018
Young New Zealanders Viewing Sexual Violence2016-2017
Children and teen exposure to media content2017
Understanding the Classification System: New Zealanders' Views2016
Standardised classifications across different platforms2016
Attitudes towards classification labels2015
Young People's Research2013
Comparing Classifications2010 and 2011
Attitudes towards classification labels2013
What people think about film classification systems2012
Guidance and Protection: What New Zealanders want from the classification system for films and games2011
Understanding the Classification System: New Zealanders' views2011
Parents and Gaming Literacy2010
Report of a Public Consultation about The Last House on the Left2009
A Review of Research on Sexual Violence in Audio-Visual Media2009
Public Perceptions of a Violent Video Game X-Men Origins: Wolverine2009
Viewing Violence: Audience Perceptions of Violent Content in Audio-Visual Entertainment2008
Public Perceptions of Highly Offensive Language2007
Public Understanding of Censorship2007
Young People's Use of Entertainment Mediums2006 and 2010
Underage Gaming2005
The Viewing Habits of Users of Sexually Explicit Movies in Wellington and Hawke's Bay2004 and 2005
A Guide to the Research into the Effects of Sexually Explicit Films and Videos2003
Public Consultation on Sexually Explicit Videos2001 and 2002
Public and Professional Views Concerning the Classification and Rating of Films and Videos2000

Community Engagement

The OFLC also regularly convenes panels that are demographically representative of New Zealand as a whole to assist it with the classification of particular publications. It has convened public panels to assist it with the classification of films such as Baise-moi, Salo, Monster's Ball, Irréversible, Silent Hill, Du er ikke alene, Lolita, 8MM and Hannibal.
More frequently, the OFLC consults experts to assist it with the classification of various publications. For example, religious experts were consulted to assist with the classification of The Passion of the Christ, experts in road safety were consulted on Mischief Destroy, the Children's Commissioner on Ken Park and The Aristocrats, homeopathic practitioners on drug manufacturing books written by Steve Preisler, various human rights organisations and the Vicar of Gisborne on a publication entitled Against Homosexuality, and rape crisis centres and psychologists on Irréversible and an edition of the University of Otago student magazine Critic.
Each year the OFLC consults media studies students in its high school programme called Censor for a Day, during which an unreleased film is shown to high school students, who are then asked to classify it applying the criteria in the Films, Videos, and Publications Classification Act 1993. The students' classification is compared with, and usually identical to, the film's actual classification. Films used for Censor for a Day have included BlacKkKlansman, Get Out, Blockers, and Super Dark Times.
The Office works with a Youth Advisory panel of diverse young people aged 16-19 who provide a youth voice on media in New Zealand. Meetings are held once a month and are around two hours long. During the meetings, panel members express their views and perspectives on issues to do with potential media harms that impact on young people in New Zealand and the way the Classification Office responds to those issues. After a robust discussion, the panel members brainstorm what potential tangible outcomes could look like.
The panel regularly participate in classification assessments of upcoming feature films. Recently they helped with the classification of Boy Erased, Good Boys, and Booksmart. Their discussion is summarised in the classification decisions for those films.

List of Chief Censors

The Chief Censor is the Chief Executive Officer and Chairperson of the Office of Film and Literature Classification.