Age rating plan for music videos

The Prime Minister unveiled a pilot scheme with YouTube and the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) as he pledged to put strengthening families at the heart of everything the Government does.

The drive will see the impact on families made a standard element of Whitehall’s assessments for policies.

Funding for relationship counselling through Relate is also being doubled to nearly £20 million.

Delivering a speech in central London Mr Cameron said politicians were often nervous of talking about relationships because they did not want to appear judgmental.

“I know that I am far from the perfect father and husband, and I will never pretend otherwise,” he said.

But the premier insisted the issue was too important for government to ignore. He said he was “proud” that the coalition was recognising marriage in the tax system, and had taken action to ensure people of all sexualities could marry.

“In as far as possible we should try to make sure that the rules that exist offline should exist online,” Mr Cameron said.

“So if you want to go and buy a music video offline there are age restrictions on it. We should try to recreate that system on the internet.”

The premier also gave an insight into his own efforts to prevent his young children from watching material they should not.

“As for my own children, I am sure there are times when they have been disappointed because they haven’t been able to do something or see something,” Mr Cameron said.

“But that is part of what being a parent is about, is being able to deploy the use of the word ‘no’ and even sometimes to deploy the use of the off switch on the television, as unpopular as that might be - and sometimes ineffectual because they find another screen somewhere that is switched on.”