GTA Madness Spreads Down Under
from the australian-for-lame dept
Following the re-rating of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas to "Adults Only" in the US, the Australian government has pulled its rating of the game all together, effectively banning it since unrated games can't be sold, rented or advertised there. The game had previously been available only to people 15 and older, but the discovery of hidden consensual sex scenes in the game suddenly made all that murder, carjacking, mayhem and general blowing up of stuff unacceptable. Good luck to the Aussies trying to get this genie back in the bottle, as it should provide a vivid example of the Streisand effect. The game's already in circulation, and available on file-sharing networks and so on, so it looks like there's just going to be one group of benefactors from this, and it's not those 15-year-olds that need so much protection from cartoon depictions of consensual sex.
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It isn't as simple...
So if they had been upfront, they may have passed with a MA 15+ rating, but since they didn't, they had to revoke the classification. It is similar to a film being rated MA 15+, and then getting an extra scene added could change the rating before going to cinemas. The question now is whether or not Rockstar can resubmit it for classification, and if it can, whether or not it will be classified MA 15+, rather than R 18+ because of the mod, because games with an R rating are banned in Australia.
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