BBFC fails to ban sex video sales

A bid to ban the sale of explicit hard core pornographic videos in licensed sex shops was today dismissed by a High Court judge.

The British Board of Film Classification had launched the test case against the decision of its own Video Appeals Committee to permit seven explicit sex videos to go on sale.

QC Lord Lester of Herne Hill, claimed that unless the court ruled in the BBFC's favour, most hard core porn videos would have to be classified for sale.

However, Mr Justice Hooper ruled that the appeals committee was right to decide that "the risk (of the videos in question) being viewed by and causing harm to children or young persons is, on present evidence, insignificant".

The BBFC instigated the case in an attempt to clarify the law before drawing up new guidelines for the sale of videos.

The R18 certificates, which allow the videos to be sold to adults in sex shops, had been withheld pending the outcome of today's judgment.