Media content classification in South Africa carries features of deliberative democracy. A clean break from the apartheid-era censorship, the Film and Publication Board (FPB) pursues its mandate through an inclusive, deliberative fashion and is consistent with the country’s constitution. Nalkur; Jamieson & Romer (2010) argue, consensus about the effectiveness and accuracy of age ratings on film, video games and other entertainment platforms is not fait accompli.

This Convergence Survey seeks to assess concordance between FPB’s ratings and general societal values and norms. The survey uses a quantitative research approach, focusing on parents and children 15 years and older. Interviews were conducted with 7 000 respondent’s representative of the SA demographic. A key finding is that parents generally play a limited role in the choice of films and video games children play. However, parents felt that the ratings allocated to media content is lenient.

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