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AU R18+ Rating Plans Put On Hold Due To "Interest Groups"
Dexter Herbivore writes "Australian gamers are yet again left disappointed by their government's response to a lack of an R18+ rating for games. Gamespot reports that Home Affairs Minister Brendan O'Connor has blamed 'interest groups' for swamping the public consultation with pro-R18+ submissions. From the article: 'A strong response from gamer groups in the Australian Federal Government's R18+ public consultation has led Censorship Ministers to claim that more views from the community are needed before a decision into the introduction of an R18+ classification for video games can be reached.'"
Reader UgLyPuNk adds that support for the new rating is coming from unexpected places.
I feel like this is never going to go through. One hurdle after another, it seems.
Yeah, I can imagine there are a few "interest groups" involved.
"I’m not sure how the [Home Affairs] minister pigeonholes them as an 'interest group' because gamers cover all facets of society. If consultations, by their nature, attract submissions from people who are passionate about an issue--and I assume passionate in both opposition and support--then why bother? Surely the government asked for submissions to gauge the feeling of the wider community, of which gamers make up 68 percent,"
It sounds like the submissions didn't agree with the minister's pre-determined outcome .. just keep trying until you get what you want to hear.
Australian Catholic Bishops support R18+ rating
Well my goodness, now I have to actually read the damned article.
Hmm Hmm Hmm...
The Australian Catholic Bishops (ACB) state that their preferred position is that R 18+ material would not be available in Australia. However, as material is currently available despite its illegality, it would be preferable to introduce an R18+ classification category for computer games so that access to such material, particularly by children, can be restricted.
Yessss. If it's out there, instead of making it illegal, regulate it.
Next up, Australia legalizes pot! Come on Aussies!
The ACL(Australian Christian Lobby) jumps up and down and pretty much every politician is falling over themselves to appease them
The lobby groups for Gaming launch an incredibly successful campaign for R18+ gaming to the point they manage to get 85 000 people to fill a survey out for the government, and the government calls it rigged.
The ACL claims to be a representative of Australian Christians, but every Christian I know thinks they are a bunch of ultra-conservative bastards who want to force the entire country to adhere to their very narrow view on what is and is not ok.
It appears that EB Games (a popular game retailer) and the pro-R18+ organisation Grow Up Australia were responsible for the 86% of the 59,678 submissions.
I don't know what that means, does that mean that EB and "Grow up Austrlia" employees managed to pull out 51323 submissions? Or does it mean that EB was able to motivate it's customers to actually do something and the government freaked out that anybody other than the church priest and the "elderly gentlemen who thinks a remote control is a sign of the apocalypse" bothered to submit anything. The gaming community can be very vocal (10 minutes of Xbox live will prove this!)
Either way member of these organizations are very likely to the gamers anyway and are definitely entitled to their own submission
The article says that 34 community, church, and "other groups" lodged submission against the rating. Is that all the "do gooders" managed to accumate?
I just find it ironic that the organizations that systematically covers up child-rape allegations has anything to do with judging what is morally acceptable behavior.
The head of EB is arguing that they had to voice their opinion "en masse" or they would have faced the "risk of interpreting the issue as a niche problem that didn't deserve the full attention of the government." I guess that's a valid point, given the choice, politicians would rather do nothing about this and let things stay the same, it doesn't really effect them. This isn't a vote-deciding issue (with the lackluster opposition to the AU Internet filtering I'm beginning to think nothing is a vote-deciding issue for us, nothing like that great Australian apathy eh?)
Let's see, the government is blaming people that are IN FAVOR of the 18+ rating for the government's lack of action regarding implementing the said rating.
The government is telling people that by voicing their opinions they are actually harming their own cause. I can't imagine a greater way of suppressing political dissent. I'd be surprised if this had anything to do with video games at all. More likely it's the government using this as an issue that many people are passionate about to try and start discouraging people from expressing their opinions.
-1 disagree is not a modifier for a reason. -1 troll, flaimbait, redundant, overrated are NOT acceptable substitutes.
The problem is that the "yes" camp may have the raw numbers but those who are in "no" camp are a lot more politically important to the government (I dont know the views of Family First Senator Steve Fielding on this issue but given his religious views and his views on other issues, he almost certainly falls into the "no" camp)
Also, because most of the "yes" responses came from people at the extreme "yes" end of the scale (and so few came from more moderate people) the government is likely thinking that just because a bunch of gamers want R18+ doesn't mean that regular people support it.
Its an election year here in Australia, if the government goes ahead with something like R18+ without knowing which way the vast majority of the population leans on the issue, it could hit him at the next election.
I believe the government is fudging and it's hard to see why exactly. Grown ups should be allowed to play grown up games if they so wish.
Is that minister claiming that there will not be an R18+ rating because people want the R18+ rating?
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So, hey, Moonbat Mothers Against Everything, ball's in your court. When's the last time your lobbyists took me out to lunch, in a nice dark private restaurant? I could really go for a bucket of caviare-and-non-sequential-bills right now.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
It was a fairly cynical manipulation to generate nothing but numbers of responses in favour, rather than actually arguing for the R18+ rating. It was a submission process, not a survey.
If they hadn't responded in such numbers, then they would have dismissed it as a niche issue without support. If they groups do respond, then they abuse the system. Either way, it's the gamer's fault.
Gamers should have used the process in the way it was intended and the outcomes for them would have been better. Before the submission process was announced there simply was no debate, rather than get involved in the debate process that they asked for, they've ruined it by flooding it with worthless submissions.
They demonstrated that there is a real issue. All gamers are for it and almost 70% of Australians are gamers. You say the submissions are worthless. I'm curious how many of them you read. Odd that your complaint doesn't even match the complaints of those involved. They didn't complain about the quality of the submissions one bit. They asserted that because so many came from "gamer" organizations that the process may have left out other groups. Why do your complaints not match theirs? Is the article about it wrong, and you have all the right information? How is that? Or are you making up things?
"Consultations, by their nature, attract submissions from people who are passionate about the issue. Ministers would like to consider other legitimate views from as wide a cross section of the community as possible." That doesn't sound like they didn't like the quality of the submissions. But that they are worried that the vast majority of the people liking something wouldn't properly represent the issues of the tiny minority opposed (especially when it comes close to election time).
Learn to love Alaska
Who the fuck did the government THINK was going to respond? And what the fuck did they expect them to say?
OF COURSE gamers are an "interest group" when it comes to legislation that relates to gaming. It is in their interest. By definition.
This is like putting legislation allowing gay marriage on hold because you suspect that it is being promoted too strongly by the "special interest group" of gay people who want to get married.