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.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  1. identicon
    mark, 29 Jul 2005 @ 3:39pm

    It isn't as simple...

    http://www.oflc.gov.au/resource.html?resource=544&filename=544.pdf

    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.

    link to this | view in thread ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.