Girls cheerfully show off their gruesome tribute to heavy metal band Slipknot, Stanley-knifed into their arms or belly. A Belgian army officer demonstrates the most effective way to kill someone with a knife. A Pussycat Doll trainer encourages youngsters working out to take off their clothes.
They are of differing seriousness, but all those scenes can be seen in videos that are freely available to buy on the high street or Amazon by anyone of any age, none of which have gone through any classification.
The Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) will this week close a three-month consultation that most observers believe will end a loophole which means DVDs with titles like The Bitch of Buchenwald and Britain's Bloodiest Serial Killers can claim exemption from being given age guidance by the British Board of Film Classification.
As things stand, most sport, documentary and music videos can claim an exemption from classification. "The great majority of exempt video works are fine," said the BBFC's head of policy, David Austin. "They are not going to harm anyone, but there are a significant number of titles that are potentially harmful to children.
"We know from our postbag that parents are concerned about exempt videos. Usually they write and say, 'Why did you give this video an E classification?' The answer is we didn't as it never came to us – it would not have gone to anyone."
The BBFC estimates that around 200 videos might be caught by a change in the law.
Austin showed the Guardian examples of videos that have claimed exemption but would have been classified. They range in seriousness. One of the more shocking is a documentary about the American heavy metal band Slipknot "which, actually my son bought when he was 10 and I confiscated", said Austin. "He's waiting till he's older to get it back."
It shows one fan who has carved the word Slipknot in to her forearm and another who has done the same in her belly, to which someone is seen pointing in admiration.
A music video by the Norwegian black metal band Gorgoroth, which was rated X in Germany but is unrated in the UK, shows topless women being crucified with blood running down their breasts.
A Robbie Williams video for the song Come Undone, contained on an exempt compilation, In and Out of Consciousness, shows drug taking and Williams cavorting in bed with two naked women.
Videos that can say they are educational or instructional can also claim exemption. That means that one easy-to-purchase close-combat video is exempt even though the Belgian instructor is showing the best way to kill someone with a knife. Matter-of factly demonstrating the best grip, he tells viewers, "It gets more force when perforating," then goes on to show where to put it.
Austin said: "Given concerns about knife crime in this country, that really is how to kill someone. If that came in for classification, we would not classify it – we would cut that."
Other potentially problematic DVDs include wildly violent cage fighting DVDs and ones that instruct in krav maga, the combat techniques developed by the Israeli army.
Austin said parents also complained about DVDs that are not so clear-cut – a Pussycat Dolls workout DVD for example, which includes one burlesque routine that would unquestionably make some parents feel uncomfortable.
The workout moves include feather boas being passed between the legs, followed by a roll of the head and a "bite, push, step, slap" move in which the girls bite their finger, step forward, push out their backside and slap it.
The trainer encourages them: "Really flirty!" In the next scene dancers in stilettos perform the same moves and viewers are encouraged to take some clothes off.
All the signs are that the government will change a law that was made in 1984, when no one could have foreseen a problem with music or instructional videos. The BBFC, together with other regulatory bodies, is calling for exceptions to the exemptions that would cover material that is violent, sexual, discriminatory, has repeated strong language or contains imitable behaviour such as drug use.
"It is completely common sense," said Austin. "We're talking about videos quite legally being sold on the high street, often to children. Some companies do submit them on a voluntary basis, which makes it even more confusing for parents who see on the shelf 18 and 15 ratings and see ones with an E symbol. They then ask: "Why do you think this is so much milder?"
A DCMS spokesperson said: "DCMS launched a consultation in May on the exemptions from age rating that currently apply to music, sports, religious and educational videos. The consultation closes on 1 August and government will publish its response in the autumn."
