I've been with the Board of Film Censors (BFC) for nearly four years now. My core responsibility is classification, which is basically to watch and classify films and give them the appropriate ratings. I am also secretary to the Films Consultative Panel, which advises the BFC on controversial films. I review policies pertaining to films and videos. I first joined BFC in 2004, which was also the time when film ratings were being revised.

I wasn't sure what to expect. The first thing that actually happened was the "culture shock". I didn't realise there were so many films and so many types of films. A layperson would think we watch Hollywood blockbusters all day long but that's not true. We watch films of varied genres and some of the films can be quite explicit.

I really like the classification part of the work. When you buy your ticket at the box office, you see a big sticker on the poster with the rating. But there is a whole lot more that goes on behind the scenes that I really enjoy. There is a lot of thinking and consultation that goes on behind classification. The other part I really enjoy is meeting people from the community. I do public education talks, and people approach us to find out about classification.

One of the prerequisites of my job is that I have to view everything. For instance, I had to watch a four-hour documentary on an artist I had never heard of before. You can't choose what you like to watch or not. I think a lot of us would like to watch the Hollywood films but that's not to be! Different people have different thresholds for different content. For me, I have a low threshold for horror movies!

They have definitely changed. It constantly evolves. For instance the M18 rating was introduced to bridge the gap between the previous NC16 and R21 ratings. The fact that the guidelines have changed indicates that community attitudes have changed. Our guidelines are an indication of what the community generally accepts.

As classifiers, our responsibility is to ensure that all films submitted to us are classified in an appropriate manner. Our work is not without challenges - balancing the disparate views of the vocal minority versus the silent majority. Different people have different tolerance levels. Today, there is a greater need to reach out and hear from various groups in the community as well as educate the young on informed decision-making amid the increasing plethora of media choices.