LONDON The British Board of Film Classification's decision to award Brit helmer Christopher Nolan's brooding "The Dark Knight" a permissive '12A' certificate has stirred up a storm in Blighty.

"The BBFC should realize there are scenes of gratuitous violence in 'The Dark Knight' to which I certainly would not take my 11-year-old daughter," says Keith Vaz, a high-profile Labour member of Parliament. "It should be a '15' certificate." The '12A' allows admission to a child accompanied by an adult.

The uproar is not confined to the incumbent Labour party and has even raised questions about the org's oversight of vidgames.Iain Duncan Smith, a former leader of the Tory party said in a letter to the Times: "I was astonished that the board could have seen fit to allow anyone under the age of 15 to watch the film. Unlike past Batman films, where the villains were somewhat surreal and comical figures, Heath Ledger's Joker is a brilliantly acted but very credible psychopathic killer who extols the use of knives to kill and disfigure his victims, during a reign of urban terrorism laced with torture."

Rising teen knife crime is a current political and societal issue in Blighty.

Pols' dismay has echoed concerns from the public. In the first week of release, the BBFC received more than 80 complaints -- the most ever for that frame for a theatrical release -- from members of the public over "The Dark Knight's" content.

Rival studio execs tell Variety they, too, were somewhat surprised the Warner Bros. release got a '12A' rather than a '15.'

Responding to the furor, BBFC spokeswoman Sue Clark pointed out that the pic is a fantasy film: "Batman can jump off buildings and fly, and the joker is not a realistic character and bounces back with a smile on his face."

The original BBFC classification ruling says, "guidelines at '12A' state that 'violence must not dwell on detail' and that 'there should be no emphasis on injuries or blood' and whilst 'The Dark Knight' does contain a good deal of violence, all of it fits within that definition," adding, it "is a superhero movie and the violence it contains exists within that context, with both Batman and the Joker apparently indestructible no matter what is thrown at them."

Watchers feel the BBFC has grown increasingly lenient in it classification policy. The body was considered relatively strict under chief exec James Fernon (who departed in 1999) but has passed sexually charged pics including "Intimacy" and "Nine Songs" (classified '18') under successors Robin Duval and David Cooke.

Of course the brouhaha has done little harm to the B.O. Since its glitzy European premiere in London on July 21, "The Dark Knight" has been the film to see. Boosted by a warm reception from the British crix, and seemingly done little harm by the allegations of assault thrown at Christian Bale by his family after the preem, the pic has cumed a whammo $49.6 million as of Aug. 3.

The Batpic classification debate comes amid growing concerns over the potentially negative impact of violent and sexually explicit entertainment images on young minds. A recent government report called for a tightening up of the classification of vidgames and better regulation of content available on vid-sharing sites like YouTube.

In the report, MPs call for an immediate consultation on whether vidgames should get a film-style classification. Under current rules, only games containing human sex or extreme violence need a BBFC rating. As a result, fewer than 3% get an 18 certificate, meaning they can be sold only to gamers age 18 and above.

"The current system of classification comes from a time when videogames were in their infancy," Culture Minister Margaret Hodge says. "The games market has simply outgrown the classification system, so today we are consulting on options that will make games classification useful and relevant again."

The DCMS report favors handing overseeing all games ratings to the BBFC. That proposal has angered the games industry, which would prefer the industry-administered Pan European Game Information body to handle classification.

"This is the biggest policy issue the games industry has had to face in the U.K.," Tiffany Steckler, European communications director for game-maker EA, tells Variety. "The games industry is right behind raising consumer awareness to classification, and we support leaving classification duties in the hands of PEGI. Is the BBFC physically equipped for what's coming? Are they ready to dive into a fast-moving nonlinear medium?"