Freiwillige Selbstkontrolle der Filmwirtschaft

The Freiwillige Selbstkontrolle der Filmwirtschaft (FSK, Self-Regulatory Body of the Movie Industry) is a German motion picture rating system organization run by the Spitzenorganisation der Filmwirtschaft (SPIO, Head Organisation of the Movie Industry) based in Wiesbaden.

The main tasks of the FSK are approving and rating movies and trailers, videos and DVDs, and commercials.

The FSK takes into account whether or not a film is shown on certain specially protected holidays mentioned in the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany.

A movie that is not rated by FSK is checked for possible violation of applicable law by a jurist agency (Juristen-Kommission, JK) of the Spitzenorganisation der Filmwirtschaft (SPIO).

Approved movies receive one of two classifications: While not obligatory, it is common to display a rectangular, black and white logo with "SPIO/JK geprüft" and the JK certificate granted.

These movies may be additionally indexed (blacklisted) by the Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons.

They are appointed by the movie and video industry and the public authorities for three years, and must have experience in dealing with minors or have similar factual knowledge of psychology or media studies.

The goal of this institution was to avoid government regulation of the movie industry and to replace the effective military censoring: And here was our first thought, because we had a bad experience in the Third Reich: to build a self-organized film inspection system, because a federal film inspection system is always in danger of starting to control political attitude (Horst von Hartlieb).

Because of this, at the start of 1948 the German secretary of education of the western occupied zones set up a commission to answer the question of whether young people were endangered by movies.

The countries of the Soviet occupational zone did not take part in the FSK, since the film inspection there was taken on by the government of the GDR, formed in the same year.

The movie Sophie Scholl – Die letzten Tage was the 100,000th film inspected by the FSK on 9 December 2004.