So it's not true that Mary Poppins was banned for children under 12. There is a special rating for this age group called 12A or 12: films rated this way “generally contain material” that is not considered “suitable for children under 12 years of age.”
The BBFC website says the new classification was made because Mary Poppins contains “discriminatory language”. A spokesman for the organization told the BBC that the film twice contained the word “Hottentot,” which is considered discriminatory and which Salvini also mentioned on Facebook. As Treccani explains, “Hottentots” is a “nickname” given by Dutch colonists in the 17th century to the tribes living around the Cape of Good Hope, now in South Africa. According to the encyclopedia, “Hottentot” appears to mean “stutterer,” and this name was chosen “because of the repulsive sounds” that the local tribes used in their language. Curiosity: Even the term “barbarian”, which comes from the ancient Greek “barbaros”, was born to imitate the chatter (“bar bar”) of people who could not speak this language.
In Mary Poppins, the offensive word is uttered twice throughout the film, always by Admiral Boom (supporting character played by John Reginald Owen). For the first time, the Admiral asks Michael Banks (one of the two children whose nanny Mary Poppins will become) what adventures he has planned for that day, whether he wants to “fight the Hottentots or find hidden treasure.” And a second time, when – commenting on the scene of the chimney sweeps dancing on the roofs of London with faces blackened by soot – he exclaims: “We are being attacked by the Hottentots!”