Erasing David is a 2009 UK documentary by David Bond & Melinda McDougall
The BBFC passed the 2010 cinema release 12A with the comment: During post-production, the distributor sought and was given advice on how to secure the desired classification. Following this advice, certain changes were made prior to submission.
The BBFC explained their 12A rating:
Erasing David is a documentary about one man’s attempts to escape from what he sees as the increasingly intrusive nature of public surveillance and data collection. It has been passed 12A for strong language.
The BBFC Guidelines at 12A state that the use of strong language (for example, ‘fuck’) must be infrequent. The film contains four uses of strong language, all of which are spoken by the film’s director and subject, David Bond, in moments of extreme frustration. He is alone on each occasion and speaks only for the benefit of the camera. They are not, therefore, directed at any other person.
There are two mild sex references in the film. The first occurs when one of the witnesses used by Bond talks about how his credit card details had been stolen and used to visit pornographic websites, including some containing indecent images of children. The other occurs when Bond’s wife, examining the extent to which her family’s personal details had been stored by a number of organisations, says I feel like I’ve been data raped. The Guidelines at 12A state that sex references should not go beyond what is suitable for young teenagers. In the context of this serious documentary the sex references would have been permissible at PG.
