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This article is about the British Restricted 18 rating. For the Australian rating, see R 18+. Not to be confused with the New Zealand's R18 certificate or Japan's R-18 classification.

The R18 category is a special and legally-restricted classification primarily for explicit works of consenting sex or strong fetish material involving adults. Films may only be shown to adults in specially licensed cinemas, and video works may be supplied to adults only in licensed sex shops. R18 video works may not be supplied by mail order.

BBFC

BBFC R18
BBFC R18 2002

2002–2019

R18 (Restricted 18) is a certificate given by the BBFC stating that a particular film contains realistic sex scenes and/or fetishes that make it to where persons under 18 are not allowed to purchase the material. It is the most restrictive of the British film certificates. These videos are, in fact, so intense and explicit, they are only allowed to be sold in licensed sex shops or shown in a sex theatre. These videos are against the law to send over the Internet or by post. The R18 classification was introduced in 1982. The certificate originally appears with the word 'Restricted'. The simplified form of the certificate (used as of today) does not show the word 'Restricted'. No equivalent MPA/TVPG/ESRB rating exists; however there are now pornographic DVDs that are rated TV-MA. Most major British movie theatres won't show this rating as well as all streaming services in the UK won't allow R18 material. Most video games don't even get this rating.

More works were cut at R18 than at any other category. Of the 97 video works given R18 certificates in 2022, 11 were cut, corresponding to an 11% ratio, compared to less than 3% for works given 18 certificates. All of the cuts for an R18 certificate were compulsory. Those videos are considered to be degrading towards women, which is considered to be modern exploitation.

Content illegal under UK law and material which is deemed to be harmful to public good is forbidden at the R18 rating.

Works given R18 certificates (and other adult works) are filtered out from the BBFC website's search results unless the tick box next to 'Show adult content (this may include explicit and/or offensive titles)' is ticked. All R18 works share the common ratings info: [Contains] strong images of real sex, or fetish material, intended for sexual stimulation. Out of all the BBFC ratings, this one is the most rarest of the bunch.

List[]

It is rare for a film for cinema release to get an R18 certificate due to the legal restrictions of distributing R18 rated videos. An example is the 2005 cinema release of the 1972 pornographic film Deep Throat.

  • As of November 12, 2023, there are over 2,000 R18 rated titles according to IMDb. (list)
British Board of Film Classification (BBFC)
BBFC U BBFC PG BBFC 12A BBFC 12 BBFC 15 BBFC 18 BBFC R18

Formerly used certificates: A | H | X | AA | Uc | PG-12

History of certificates | Video Recordings Act 1984 | Rejected works | Cut works | Discrepancies

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