Coders

Using a questionnaire developed by Kijkwijzer, broadcasters and film and video distributors classify their productions themselves. Specially trained employees, called coders, view a production carefully and then answer sixty questions on what they have seen over the internet. A Kijkwijzer computer programme then works out which classification the production will then be given.

Reliability

The questionnaire the coders have to fill in was developed by a group of renowned experts in the field of media and youth. They made use of research into the harmful influence of audio-visual productions on children and young people. In addition, a great deal of consideration has been devoted to the wishes of parents and educators. All in all, the questionnaire has proven in practice to be a reliable yardstick.

The questionnaire

Curious about the questionnaire used by the coders? You can download and print it out.

Go to Questionnaire

How does the classification come about?

On the basis of a number of questions, the coder assesses the television programme or film in terms of violence, fear, sex, discrimination, drug and/or alcohol abuse and coarse language. An age recommendation is associated with each of these subjects. The subject with the highest age score determines the final age recommendation that Kijkwijzer gives a production.

Of course, it is possible for a television programme or film to score highly in relation to several subjects. For the sake of clarity, however, a recommendation will never consist of more than three content pictograms. Priority is given, in part at the request of parents, to the pictograms for violence, fear and sex.

If you are interested in the complete result of a classification with all the pictograms, you can find this in the Kijkwijzer classification database. Simply go to the home page and click on Search Classifications.

Examples

Here are two examples of how a Kijkwijzer recommendation is arrived at:

In this case, sex is the subject with the highest score, meaning that the age limit is set at 16 years. The Kijkwijzer recommendation is: 

If several subjects score equally highly, these will also be included in the Kijkwijzer recommendation, with a maximum of three.

In this case, violence and fear set the age limit at 12 years.

The Kijkwijzer recommendation is: