Contemporary Media Regulation – Why regulate?

Why regulate? What are the purposes of regulation?

Firstly, we should be familiar with the definition of “regulate”, which is to say; “a rule or directive made and maintained by an authority.”

So, what is the purpose of any regulation and why do we regulate?

• Protect the vulnerable (particularly children, as they are still developing and are more susceptible to messages, good and bad.) We don’t want an infant watching a particularly terrifying horror film and not being able to sleep at night.
• To uphold the law (unlikely to encourage the average person to break the law). Basically, there needs to be some sort of negative message to remind people of the implications of breaking the law, which should (hopefully) be enough to stop them.
• To prevent the immoral being shown positively – by this we mean for example, racism cannot be shown in a positive light. There must be some sort of repercussion to highlight what is good and what is bad in society.
• To take into account the message of the work in its entirety
• To protect against harmful messages, for example messages from the Islamic State might want to be regulated to reduce the impact of any harmful impacts.
• Avoid perpetrating real-life criminal acts for entertainment purposes, otherwise this would enable people to carry out illegal acts in order to make a film.