Slashdot Mirror
Bill Introduced To Ban Sale of MA15+ Games To Anyone Under 18 in SA
dotarray writes "The introduction of an R18+ rating for video games into Australia has been designed to bring game classification in line with the current system in place for films and other media. One state, however, would like to widen that gap."
This is being billed (by John Rau's office) as a saner approach than eliminating the MA15+ rating entirely.
Why is there still political uproar over games after all these years? It may have been understandable in the mid-1990s when Doom and Mortal Kombat were portraying a level of violence people hadn't seen in games before in such detail, but that time has passed without effect, and the attention given to games today feels disproportionate. It's just an easy, uncontroversial issue for politicians to pick up in order to appeal to family-first voters.
Is there a black market for R18+ games? Can you just torrent them?
Surely Aussies don't just accept that the games are censored.
OK so they are going to ban the sale of games rated as suitable for 15 year olds to anyone who is under 18... wait... WHAT? So a 15 16 or 17 year old can't buy a game rated for 15 years or older????
Governments aren't exactly renowned for their counting and accounting skills. It's like they try to look stupid to win the "I don't care 'bout that 'math[s]' shit" vote.
You can hold down the "B" button for continuous firing.
Yes, please create more state specific legislation in a country with 25 million people. *sigh*
Stop wasting my tax money, you bunch of a-holes. We have an 18+ rating. Baby steps.
ye we just import the games from elsewhere lol or pirate them should that be too hard *insert comment about industry helping us get R18 so we dont pirate*
this is so typical of the aus government, it shouldn't be a hard process to get an extra rating for adults only and put the hard core games into it , literally just say this rating exists and its illegal to sell em to under 18s and these types of games go here, literally everyone remotely interested in games wants this but because our ridiculous government and its habit of listening to religious morons, its taken years to get the R18 rating to this stage and now after its been accepted they are still gonna let them try and ruin it after the fact no doubt delaying everything again,
note SA previously tried to amend the new rating system to remove the MA15 rating it was shot down by ALL others and then a decision was reached on the R18 rating fuuuu
You are correct, sir. However, it's not like there is any hard science behind choosing 15 instead of 18 (or 16, 17 or 78).
What?
Therefore, my intention is that the South Australian legislation will prevent the sale of MA15+ games to minors. This move will give parents greater certainty about the appropriateness of games for their children.
From what I gather, the aim is to make parents/guardians responsible for the content they are viewing/playing, and forcing them (or anyone over 18) to be there at the time of purchase.
However, this goes against the description of the MA15+ rating...
[From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Classification_Board ]
MA15+ (Mature Accompanied for those under 15) - Persons under said age may only legally purchase, rent, exhibit or view MA15+ rated content under the supervision of an adult guardian. The exhibition of these films to people under the age of 15 years who are not supervised by an adult guardian is a criminal offence. Recommended for 14-15+.
Yes, I am a typical American and all I know about Australia I learned from the Simpsons and Crocodile Dundee... what is South Australia?
Is Australia two continents? I am pretty sure it isn't, but the public school system is so bad here, I wouldn't be surprised if I never learned about that.
Actual South Australian here - This is actually A Good Thing.
For about 15-20 years our ratings have been E - Exempt, G - for general exhibition, PG - Parental guidance, M15+, MA15+ and R18+ and X18+.
This removes the bullshit rating of ma15 plus, basically it's an M with 'a bit more but not quite an R'.
There hasn't been an R18 for games, so this is where they were all shoehorned, into this ma15+ category.
More info - see here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Classification_Board#Film_and_video_game_classifications
...that thinks we shouldn't be asking the state with the City of Churches how to protect children.
It's a bit like putting Hunter S. Thompson in charge of the uppers.
Does that mean Austrailians are all 3 years younger than the rest of us?
We need an MA65 law in the US for all romantic comedies. By banning everyone under the age of 65 from seeing romantic comedies much suffering by men would be avoided on date night across the country.
What exactly are the rights of a minor? Both relative to their parent/guardian, and to what the state can authorize/restrict?
This whole issue is completely retarded.
Just politicians demonstrating how irrelevant and out-of-touch with they are with society in general...
Imagine if they where trying to ban sales of a board game, or books? Talk about inappropriate usage of public funds!
Also, how ironic that they would target an age group of people who are just about to make the first political decision/vote in there life; Which way do you think they'll vote. First impression count much for you?
And who is this supposed to be scoring points for? Could it be that there is an ulterior motive; history has showed us that's a slippery and dangerous path...
Internationally, "SA" usually refers to South Africa, not South Australia.
My understanding was that the introduction of R18+ for video games was removing the MA15+ rating altogether. It would be G, PG, M (all just advisory) then R18+ (legally restricted to 18+).
Therefore, the legislation being introduced would just be shifting existing MA15+ material (a rating that no longer exists) to be under the same restrictions as R18.
As long as they have the games, the fact they ban the sale to a minor is almost irrelevant. Most kids parents still buy them the games or the stores don't bother checking ages. Seems like half the people playing GTA in the USA are under 18. I work at a retailer that sales games, while it is store policy not to sell games to minors I typically do anyway, there is no law against it. I use my own judgment. I won't sell GTA to a 12 year old kid, mainly because I don't want their parents coming up to the store bitching. But 16 year old, yeah no problem.
They can have their law & say they are protecting the children and everyone can go back to playing GTA and other games. Have your cake and eat it too. :)
kids should not be able to buy content that is violent, graphic, has sex (not often) and mature themes. Theaters have been doing it for years. the target market for video games is kids, I am sure that had nothing to do with a lax rating system.
most of you ... lose your virginity age 14
That's for female 14 year-olds. (You're a Man when you can pay the rent and drive a car. You're a Woman when you're a good fuck, or lie about it.) Aussie males (who choose football over Slashdot) have to wait a year or two.
I like the Aussie movie "Puberty blues" (1981) which is a docu-drama of how 14 year-old schoolgirls ('Salami sisters') used sex in the 1970s. There is also a suggestion of young schoolgirls fucking in "Hey, hey, it's Esther Blueburger".
I like that Nepalese city which doesn't have marriage. A man pays child support for his nieces and nephews, meaning there is no need for virgin schoolgirls or naming the father of those children.
Let's rate sociopoltical issues by IQ/Intellectual Age, thereby preventing politicians at large from voicing any opinions/legislation about topics for which they are ignorant, ill informed or simply pandering for votes.
This might look like a good thing, but they're basically trying to undo the R18+ reforms, by making MA15+ the same as R18+. As many have pointed out, it will achieve nothing and add complication for retailers and buyers. Why can't we just accept the classifications boards definitions, like the rest of the states.
Under the legislation, movies like the Saw franchise can be seen by minors, but games like GTA and Mortal combat can't be played.
This is just typical Adelaide politics. We endured the idiot Michael Atkinson with his overly conservative views, holding Australian to ransom over game classification reform. He made us look like a joke for too many years. Now we have to suffer another idiot trying to do the same, pandering to a fringe group of religious do-gooders/ nuts-cases, that are hell bent on making this state a retirement village. We all bitch about Adelaide getting a bad rap, but it's this kind of crap that instils SA's backwater reputation.
Area51 - We are watching...
Why shouldn't games have this uproar? Movies, music, books and comics/strips/manga have had and often continue to have the same response. Rap anyone? Strips (European comics) were considered to rot the minds of youths (only the good ones) before they became accepted as an art in their own right (only the boring ones).
Doom and Mortal combat had their opposition but that doesn't mean that was done and over with. By that logic, after people stopped having a heart attack of Elvis Presley's hip movements, all other music forms should have come and gone without a problem.
And all of this is part of democracy, the rule of the majority, whether you like what the majority votes for or not. To often people think that because they approve of something that should end the public debate. And then those same people are outraged others think EXACTLY the same but with an opposing view.
Democracy is a constantly moving, never finished project where people who really don't like each other very much try to figure out how to get the other to live by their standards.
Don't forget, if you want games to go unrated, you are just as much forcing YOUR view on others, as those who want to rate games. And unless you are sure you have an easy majority, you better be a little bit more mature about it then calling the other side a bunch of booger heads.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
MA15+ is a rating that should not exist. It is basically a rebadging of M with enforcement behind it. Seriously if M is not a good enough rating for the game then it probably should have been under R18+ anyway. MA15+ has always been a cludge and a blocker for content that can't be squeezed into that rating.
As if parents aren't the ones buying the games for their children anyway.
Australia is really messed up if the people over don't buy their children games which are rated above their age.
The only reason to use those ratings is for not buying a too difficult game for a child too young.
If he wants to play it the parent should get it. The rest is BS.
Personally I feel that M should disappear, rather than MA15+.
The actual enforcement is more a slap to lazy parents that the material is inappropriate for their 10 year old.
A rating of 15+ or 18+ is not prohibition, kids. It just means you should take your parents to the shop to buy you that 15+ or 18+ game. If they buy it for you, no government is going to stop you from blowing some virtual guy's head off.
IOW. Move along.
The law is *designe* to interfere with retailers, discouraging the lucrative teen market for violent games. The point is to interfere with businesses in public places where the voters will be reminded of them and satisfy those voters, without actually taking on the legal problems of forbidding the business.
Banning game sales of MA15+ games to 18 year olds... either simple math ain't simple or there's something I'm missing here, because last time I checked: 16 || 17 > 15. (And yes, before anyone says anything, I did read the article).
The US has just announced that PG-13 movies are only suitable to people aged 18 or older and you must reach double-digits before viewing TV-Y7 programming. Also, in order to watch NC-17 movies you must be 21 years old, at home alone, with the sound turned down low so that no one will find out that you're watching freaking Showgirls.
"Listen, kid. You spent nine months living mommy's guts, sucking blood and nutrients off her like a giant parasite, disfuguring her for life. You ripped your way out of her vag in a bloody, screaming horror scene that scarred her for life and put daddy off the porn for nearly a year. Not to mention all the nursing, and the fact that keeping you in food and diapers alone keeps daddy doing this miserable thing you will one day call 'work' for the better part of a day. You want to complain that daddy's little video game is too much for your insecure psyche to handle? Fine. Go outside and play. Daddy needs to kill a few uglies."
However, it's not like there is any hard science behind choosing 15 instead of 18 (or 16, 17 or 78).
But there's no hard science behind your statement either, sir. Not everything has to be based on empirical evidence, because for one, your statement is not based on empirical evidence.