Department of Justice, Rating, Titles and Qualification

Department of Justice, Rating, Titles and Qualification
Abbreviation	DEJUS
Purpose/focus	Rating body
Location	Brazil
Website	http://www.mj.gov.br/classificacao

The DEJUS, or Department of Justice, Rating, Titles and Qualification (Departamento de Justiça, Classificação, Títulos e Qualificação in Portuguese) rates movies, games and television programs in Brazil. It is controlled by the Ministry of Justice (Ministério da Justiça).

Movies and TV programs

People under the minimum age indicated by the rating can watch the movie and/or TV program accompanied by their parents, except for pornographic films and TV programs. The films are rated by trained raters from the DEJUS, but TV programs are rated by their own broadcasters, in which case the DEJUS may change the self-assigned rating if considered inappropriate. More recently^[when?], the DJCTQ has surveyed the audience's opinions on the ratings indicated for specific films and/or TV programs. No "parental guidance" ratings are used.

The DEJUS uses the following system:

Icon	Description	TV screening time
	Especialmente recomendado para crianças e adolescentes (Especially recommended for children and teenagers) This film and/or TV program does not contain any inappropriate contents, but it may be better understood by children older than 9 years of age and teenagers.	anytime
	Livre para todos os públicos (General Audiences) This film and/or TV program contains no objectionable content and can be viewed by anyone, regardless of age.	anytime
	Não recomendado para menores de 10 anos (Not recommended for viewers younger than 10 years of age) This film and/or TV program is recommended for persons with or over 10 years of age, for it may contain depreciative or obscene language, threatening, physical or verbal aggression and drug use innuendo.	anytime
	Não recomendado para menores de 12 anos (Not recommended for viewers younger than 12 years of age) This film and/or TV program is recommended for persons with or over 12 years of age, for it may contain mild nudity, sexual innuendo, obscene language and gestures, erotism, exposure of people to humiliating or degrading situations, detailed description of crimes or aggressive actions, physical or verbal aggression (such as implicit murder and animal abuse), exposure of corpses, and legal or illegal drug consuming innuendo.	from 8:00pm to 6:00am
	Não recomendado para menores de 14 anos (Not recommended for viewers younger than 14 years of age) This film and/or TV program is recommended for persons with or over 14 years of age, for it may contain nudity, intimate relationships, excessively obscene or degrading language, violence (such as physical or verbal aggression, murder, torture and suicide) illegal drug consuming, and explicit and repeated legal drug consuming.	from 9:00pm to 6:00am
	Não recomendado para menores de 16 anos (Not recommended for viewers younger than 16 years of age) This film and/or TV program is recommended for persons with or over 16 years of age, for it may contain sexual relationships, nudity and intimate caresses, detailed violence (murder, physical aggression, torture, rape, mutilation, sexual abuse), explicit illegal drug consuming, and inducement to consume drugs.	from 10:00pm to 6:00am
	Não recomendado para menores de 18 anos (Not recommended for viewers younger than 18 years of age) This film and/or TV program is recommended for persons with or over 18 years of age, for it may contain explicit sex, pornography, excessive violence (murder, torture, rape, suicide, mutilation, detailed exposure of corpses), and explicit and repeated consuming of illegal drugs. This classification is also used for pornographic films and/or TV programs.	from 11:00pm to 6:00am

Games

Games are rated in Brazil by the DEJUS since October 2002. The growing game market in Brazil needed bigger control over the countless games sold in the country every day. It was introduced by Senator José Gregori.

The American system that was being used by some Brazilian distributors, from Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), was not translated from English or adapted to the Brazilian culture, being inappropriate for the Brazilian market and leaving most consumers uninformed.

Between October 2002 and September 2004, the DEJUS analyzed and rated over 2,100 electronic games for both computer and video game consoles.

The game rating system is very similar to the film and television rating system, except for lacking the ER rating:

• Livre (general)
• 10 anos (10 years)
• 12 anos (12 years)
• 14 anos (14 years)
• 16 anos (16 years)
• 18 anos (18 years)

Content descriptors are also used, similar to ESRB system. Games are rated by trained raters, and the main topics analyzed by the DEJUS are sex, violence and drugs. Rating is mandatory for all games released in Brazil. A consequence, is that several online stores (like Playstation Network or Apple Store) do not sell games, or are not even available to Brazil. Also technically is possible to ban a game by not rating it.

A film, television show and video game ratings database is available in the Ministry of Justice website.

Requesting a rate

In order to request a Qualification Rating, you must provide to the Ministry the documentation which explains why your media (game/tv show, etc.) is recommended or not to a certain rating, and must also provide some preview of that media, otherwise your request will not get correctly analyzed.

The docs actually are only in Portuguese, and they must be delivered by the official publisher representative in the country, in this address:

Department of Justice, Classification, Titles and Qualification, the National Secretariat of Justice, located in the Esplanada dos Ministerios, Bloco T, Ministry of Justice, Annex II, Sala 321 Brasilia, CEP 70064-900

There's no fee to get the rating and according to the ministry, the process from the documents reception to the official rating takes about 20 days.

External links

• DEJUS page; rated movies and games database (in Portuguese)
• Links to the needed forms (in Portuguese)