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Video nasties, vile and supposedly corrupting films released on VHS, were the subject of a British moral panic in the 1980s.
Films that were banned as "video nasties" included The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. The Director of Public Prosecutions also compiled a list of films that were considered to be obscenely violent.
Controversial surveys appeared to show that they were circulating throughout society, and that many children had viewed them; however, a more carefully conducted survey showed that children were just as likely to report having seen non-existent "nasties" added to the list by the survey as the actual 'forbidden' titles.
Although some of the films banned are extremely unpleasant, most of them are now either legally available in the UK or no longer on the DPP's banned list.
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