Doesn't the fact that we're now brainstorming what the obscene content could have been rather render the BBFC's work as guardians of our morality redundant?
As for me, that illogical Code Geass cut was the last straw. I have no interest in underage cartoon characters whatsoever but the people doing the censoring are clearly making it up as they go along. The only way that Geass cut made sense is if you subscribe to the sexist, schoolboy logic that breast size correlates with a woman's age because the context was completely ignored in favour of that bra cup measurement.
It makes no sense to have humans in some countries subject to restrictions that their fellow human beings elsewhere are not. Anime can never be 'child abuse' because no children were involved in the process. It can be obscene, sure, but that label seems to be handed out completely inconsistently under the guise of a vaguely-worded law. The day they get their talons into streaming and ruin that industry for us too is the day I leave this place for good. Outside of work actually aimed at children, the BBFC seems to be doing more for encouraging piracy and evasion than improving morality.
People from the future are going to laugh so much seeing the harmless stuff that was considered obscene in our time, much as the uncensored violence from old films ends up being viewed as acceptable later on.
Edit: Seriously, why are the BBFC even being paid in this case? They charge the distributors for a service which is mandatory, then despite being made up of adults vulnerable to the twisted allure of pervy anime, they decide that other adults aren't capable of watching it without becoming criminals. Meanwhile, the uncensored version is readily available from hundreds (if not thousands) of places, legally and illegally, and actually thousands of people in the UK have already seen it anyway. Hardened lawbreaking paedophiles will have been all over the rips on an illegal torrent site months and months ago. How many borderline criminals see that something has been cut by a few seconds and decide that actually, they don't find underaged smut sexy after all? What is the point in what the BBFC are doing?
If they want to be taken seriously why don't they come up with a way to update the system that doesn't treat the people of this country like infants whilst speeding the local film distributors to an early grave?
R