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Bill Introduced To Ban Sale of MA15+ Games To Anyone Under 18 in SA

Posted by Unknown on from the did-i-say-fifteen-i-meant-eighteen dept.

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.

6 of 161 comments (clear)

  1. How to beat the system? by Mattygfunk1 · · Score: 4, Informative
    So most of us realize prohibition doesn't work, so as a non-gamer, I'm curious as top how the l33t get around the ban.

    Is there a black market for R18+ games? Can you just torrent them?

    Surely Aussies don't just accept that the games are censored.

    1. Re:How to beat the system? by UgLyPuNk · · Score: 5, Informative

      you hop on the Internet and order them from another State, South Australia is like, California or Colorado. That or we order them from another Asian nation, where we pay half the price for them. as In Australia game prices are stupid high.

  2. Re:15 year olds can't buy games rated for 15 years by matthobbs05 · · Score: 5, Informative
    [From TFA]

    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+.

  3. Article is misleading by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    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

  4. Re:Games are an easy political issue by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Because people over 35 haven't played games as a kid.

    Way to over-generalize facts that you pulled out of your ass, kid. I'm 39 and I grew up with videogames. The Atari 2600 was released in October 1977, when I was five years old. The Computer Space arcade game was released in 1971, roughly one year before I was even born.

    I can make up facts too, check this out: People over 25 never used compact discs in their life, all they know is MP3 files.

  5. Re:Games are an easy political issue by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    The M rating is only advisory.

    The MA15+ rating is actually a legal restriction, although a legal guardian is allowed to let a child under 15 view the media.

    R18+ is even further restricted. To view the material someone has to be over 18, allowing someone under 18 to watch it is an offence. It makes a big difference.