Vikram Sahay, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB) Tuesday said that the digital entertainment sector has witnessed phenomenal growth and has been a source of direct and indirect employment. However, it is now the responsibility of every stakeholder to ensure self-classification and self-regulation happens in the right spirit under the Digital Media Ethics Code.

While speaking at Pixels 2021, the digital entertainment conference organised by Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), Sahay said, “Consumers are curious whether the self-classification rule will be able to maintain the level of seriousness and discipline in content creation.”

He went on to add: “We are of the view that the content creators and producers are mature enough and have accepted it in the right spirit. It is now the responsibility of everyone in the industry to ensure this self-classification happens in letter and spirit. There should not be any cause of grievances on account of the fact that it is self-classification rather than pre-certification.”

In May earlier this year, the Indian Government brought in the country’s new digital media regulations, including those for intermediaries, which lays emphasis on three levels of self-regulation (under government oversight) for the digital players, including content that’s streamed.

“We are in consultation with IAMAI for quite long, essentially in the area of content regulation and IAMAI has played a very important role in putting all the OTT players together and trying to develop a commonality of ideas and interests and that has helped us in trying to come out with Digital Media Ethics Code, which was notified in February this year,” Sahay said.

The Digital Media Ethics Code prescribed a framework to empower consumers to make informed viewing choices and also put in place a tiered grievance redress mechanism.

The virtual conference Pixels deliberated upon the business and technology side of the digital entertainment sector with respect to OTT platforms, production houses and content distributors. The summit addressed the challenges in creating and monetising quality video content, while exploring how to encourage creativity and diversity in a responsible way.