Australia Considering iPhone App Censorship

srjh writes "Having raised concerns about 'the classification of games playable on mobile telephones,' the Australian government has now 'put the wheels in motion to address this.' Under current Australian legislation, video games sold in the country must pay between $470 and $2040 to have the game classified, and due to the lack of an 18+ rating in Australia, if it is not found to be suitable for a 15-year-old, it is banned outright. This is the fate met by several recent titles, such as Left 4 Dead 2 and Fallout 3. Over 200,000 applications are available for the iPhone, many of them games, and developers have raised concerns about the prohibitive costs involved, with many announcing an intention to drop the Australian market altogether if the plan proceeds."

Comments

Re:This comment not safe for 15-year-old

[IndustrialComplex]

Yes, which is why we want an R18 rating for games, but the government won't do that. That's exactly my point, they decide they will just wield the ban-hammer instead of having an R18 rating that parents would have to be aware of.

An R18 rating isn't a solution, but a means to introduce further censorship. The fact that there is always something 'worse' wouldn't be the point. Right now you have a rating of what T15? That IS your R18 rating. The problem is that your system encourages a level which is banned to everyone.

So you increase the level to R18, what difference would that make. All it would do is give people justification for applying more censorship.

"Well, it couldn't even make it into an R18 category, so it MUST be horrible stuff that should be banned"

The problem isn't a lack of R18, the problem is that anything not meeting 'standards' is illegal.