Belgium

[BE] System of Identification - the French Community in Line with France

IRIS 2001-2:1/11

François Jongen

Catholic University of Louvain, Avocat (lawyer)

In 1999, after much hesitation, the Government of the French-speaking Community of Belgium adopted a first order designed to protect minors from television broadcasts likely to be damaging to their physical, mental or moral development. It classified broadcasts into four groups, three of which had to be broadcast with a pictogram - programmes subject to parental agreement, programmes banned for anyone under the age of 16, and programmes banned on all but encrypted channels.

The identification marking, which corresponds to the Belgian system for classifying films shown in cinemas, was nevertheless confusing, as it was not the same as the system required of French channels, which have many viewers in Belgium.

On 12 October 2000, at the request of the television channels, the Government therefore adopted a new order imposing a system of identification identical to that in use in France. Broadcasts are now classified into five categories, four of which require a pictogram - parental agreement desirable, parental agreement essential, banned for anyone under the age of sixteen, and banned for anyone under the age of eighteen.