Because Too Many People Think It's A Good Idea, Australia Holding Off On Approving Adult Video Game Rating

from the logic-please? dept

Wed, May 12th 2010 10:36pm — Mike Masnick

As many of you know, Australia has a strict censorship policy on video games, not allowing anything it classifies as being solely for adults into the country. This has always seemed like an odd decision, since it seems like if you just clearly marked or classified the games as being for those over 18, then adults could decide for themselves what games to play. And, indeed, an effort has been underway for a long time to add an AU-R18 rating for video games. For a while, every attempt to get that passed was blocked by the video game hating Attorney General in South Australia, Michael Atkinson. However, he recently stepped down, potentially clearing the path to allowing "mature" video games into Australia.

However, Slashdot alerts us to the news that the process is being held up, because politicians are concerned that so many people wrote in to support the proposal. Yes, you read that correctly. Because so many people supported the proposal, the government wants to go out and get "more views from the community" from people who don't like the idea.

Now, I recognize the concern that the consultation process was potentially overrun by "interest groups" (i.e., people who play games), but this is one of those situations where those would really be the people who are impacted most by this ruling -- and the fact that they turned out by the tens of thousands, while those on the flip side couldn't muster up anywhere near the same level of support, suggests that for those this rule would actually impact, the majority would like to knock down that censorship wall.

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Filed Under: australia, censorship, video games

14 Comments

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Nick Coghlan (profile), 12 May 2010 @ 11:28pm

Gotta love election year :P
My guess is that the Attorneys General (all state Labour politicians) don't want to give the (non-Labour) federal opposition any "Won't somebody please think of the children!?" ammunition for the federal election we have coming up later this year.

So, possibly sensible from a political point of view, but the logic of it is entirely unrelated to the pros and cons of the rating itself.
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Paul, 12 May 2010 @ 11:32pm

It's an election year and the Liberals are very quick to jump on the morals high horse.
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tim, 12 May 2010 @ 11:35pm

f*ck this.
Seriously, f*ck our country. When is the last time anyone can remember that the government actually listened to the people it is supposed to be representing?

All I know is, this year I am voting independants or greens. I just want someone who is actually going to DO something. Polititians are just a constant source of dissapointment, whichever party they represent. Isnt it sad that voting basically consists of trying to pick one least likely to screw everything up, rather than any positive. And they wonder why people get jaded and stop listening to them.
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bake n, 13 May 2010 @ 12:05am

Yep, an election year.

Labor probs wants to pander to its right, and to conservatives, especially in the hope of geting the latter's votes. The internet filter probably covers this reason, too. The filter's advocate, Senator Conjob, is part of Labor's religious right.

Also, sometimes games with R18 ratings get shoved into our MA15+, to get it past the post (so I've read, somewhere).
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Allen (profile), 13 May 2010 @ 12:50am

It's obvious
the gamers must have gamed the system!

/sarcasm
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Devonavar (profile), 13 May 2010 @ 1:13am

Is this why the Canadian government is apparently deciding to ignore its copyright consultation? Because too many people are in favour of fair copyright?
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Anonymous Coward, 13 May 2010 @ 1:32am

Gotta love RealPolitik. Can't do anything because it should be done, or needs to be done; gotta wait until it benefits you somehow.

And people wonder why we have no trust in our governments.
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Blatant Coward (profile), 13 May 2010 @ 1:32am

Won't someone please think of the adults?!!??
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Malak (profile), 13 May 2010 @ 1:47am

"G'day. Due to the public consultation not coming back with the answer we wanted, further work needs to be done before a decision can be made. We have requested further analysis of community and expert views, particularly with respect to soliciting the views of groups most likely to support the result we want."

I wonder what would have happened if the response was overwhelmingly form church groups? Go back and solicit gamer's opinions?
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Anonymous Coward, 13 May 2010 @ 2:13am

if australia wasnt the most backward country ever..
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Michael (profile), 13 May 2010 @ 7:11am

If only this worked out in the US with lobbying groups.

"The **AAs want tougher, stronger, more stringent copyright lies. Maybe we should see what the other side wants?"
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Michael (profile), 13 May 2010 @ 7:12am

Must have been a Freudian slip. Supposed to be 'laws', not 'lies'. Oops!
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Anonymous Coward, 13 May 2010 @ 9:51am

"not allowing anything it classifies as being solely for adults into the country."

I get the feeling this is really just to restrict foreign competition.
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thetruthshallsethemfree, 14 May 2010 @ 5:55am

christian right wing whackos
These guys take their direction from the right wing christian whackos in Australia. Is it any wonder that they can't accept the reality of: If there was real public dissent to this, those people would have gotten involved and pushed their agenda. They didn't but the government doesn't think thats good enough, so now it must make up these people who didn't speak out against what they thought they should be speaking out against.

Not sure why Conroy and Atkinson are so against. I am against politicians who push religious views upon others and push a big brother and police state mentality. These people should be ashamed of themselves and expand their narrow little minds.
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