What the BBFC means by 'imitable techniques' is a very wide range of activities which may be portrayed on screen and, if copied by viewers, could have undesirable effects. This may include detailed portrayal of criminal techniques, such as lock picking or recipes for making explosives. These may be cut if the instructional details are sufficient to allow people to copy them.

Certain combat techniques may also be cut, particularly from films aimed at children, if the portrayal is detailed or if it shows the techniques to be safer than they are in real life. Similarly, there may be other activities presented as harmless or exciting which if copied could prove dangerous, such as, for example, asphyxiation and hanging games, playing with electricity or fire, or scenes showing characters hiding in dangerous places such as washing machines or fridges.

With regard to criminal techniques, the Board is most concerned about video/DVD, where there is potential for a technique to be watched repeatedly until it is learned.

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