Games regulation is based on The Video Recordings Act
(1984) (as amended by the Criminal Justice Act, 1988, the
Video Recording Act 1993, the Criminal Justice and Public
Order Act, 1994 and the Digital Economy Act, 2010), which
was introduced after public concerns over the so-called
“video nasties”. The Act does two things. It requires films
and video works to be classified by age appropriateness. It
also made it an offence to sell an unclassified title, or to sell
an age-restricted title to someone below that age.