BREAKING. MultiChoice now fined R20 000 by Broadcasting Complaints Commission for aggravated negligence about wrong age restrictions.

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The Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa (BCCSA) says in a just-issued ruling that it's found ''aggravated neglicence'' on the part of MultiChoice and is fining the pay TV operator R20 000 for again breaching the broadcasting code of conduct in South Africa by having a clear problem with correctly implenting age restrictions and the age restriction lock-out system used by M-Net and MultiChoice.

This is the third time within a short period that the BCCSA has scolded MultiChoice for a problem with the correct practical implementation of age restrictions of movies.

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''Parents and caretakers should be able to rely on correct advisories in order to utilise the parental locking system correctly,'' says the BCCSA after it received complaints from people saying they were shocked that the movie Daybreakers were shown on M-Net with an advisory of PG13 displayed on the electronic programme guide (EPG) while the actual rating of 18VL was indicated on the screen corner and the movie unblocked.

The BCCSA held that the horror ''nightmare images'' were not at all suitable for children and that ''the horror contents of the film was likely to have had a very harmful effect on a substantial number of children'. The BCCSA imposed a fine of R20 000 to demonstrate that this is a serious transgression on the part of MultiChoice, given the fact that parents and caretakers should be able to rely on correct advisories in order to utilise the parental locking system correctly.

One of the complainants, Debbie Hubbard told the BCCSA that ''I complained to MultiChoice and as of today they have not gotten back to me. At the customer care at MultiChoice they denied at first the movie was age restricted 18. Then I called another supercisor who said, no, it was 18, they made a mistake. MultiChoice makes millions and what is the point of having parental lock of they can't be bothered to check what movies they are screening?''

MultiChoice argued that there was partial compliance with the BCCSA code of conduct because the film was broadcast at 21:30 after the so-called ''watershed'' period, that the correct advisory of 18VL for the film was displayed on screen as well as announced and that such errors are not repeated by the same channels.

The BCCSA accepted MultiChoice's apology but was still of the view that ''the error amounted to aggravated negligence and that the horror contents of the film was likely to have had a very harmful effect on a substantial number of children.''

In response to a media enquiry regarding the BCCSA fine of R20 000 MultiChoice says ''MultiChoice respects the decision of the BCCSA and will abide by its decision''.