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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.

15 of 161 comments (clear)

  1. Games are an easy political issue by bonch · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

    1. 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.

    2. Re:Games are an easy political issue by ShieldW0lf · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The Atari 2600 was released in October 1977,

      1983 In Australia, how do I know, I was five when it came out.

      The Atari 2600 sold 30 million units over it's entire life span throughout the entire world, so not that many people. For comparison, Nintendo sold that many Wii's in it's first year and the 2600 was sold from 1977 to 1992.

      Further more, on release it cost US$199. Add to that the AUD fetched US$0.70 in 83, that's $260 for the console. That would be if things were actually priced according to the exchange rate. The real cost of an Atari 2600 in Australia was $400 in 1983 dollars (cant be arsed figuring out inflation). Now the average wage in 1983 was around the $350-380 mark.

      So armed with those facts, I can say not that many people over 35 grew up with consoles.

      Gaming really made it's mark in the 90's with the NES/SNES and their inferior Sega counterparts (punk kids, think their console war is a new thing).

      The thing we're facing now, is that gaming has gone from being a new innovation to an accepted part of life and this shows a huge generation gap between the under 35's who grew up with gaming and the over 35's who didn't. There may be some over 35's who gamed but the overwhelming majority didn't.

      So nice way to over-generalise and pull facts out of your arse (generalise and arse spelled correctly for a discussion about Australia, thank you). You dont even have decent supposition to support your argument and yes, I did register your sample of 1, you are the anomaly, not the norm.

      I'm 36. Most of the people I knew had Atari's when I was a child. Myself, I was programming on a VIC 20 in grade school. Both were available at Canadian Tire for a pretty reasonable price. Commodore 64's were so inexpensive I was able to pay for mine with my paper route. I spent junior high school swapping C64 games on 5 1/2 inch floppy disks. One of my favorites was the barbarian sword fighting game, where if you got just the right finishing move, you'd decapitate your opponent and the little green goblin that drags the body away kicks his head like a soccer ball. Great fun.

      Hell, we even had portable versions of Pac Man, Donkey Kong and Q~bert for long car trips.

      And, of course, if you were really too poor to own any of the above, there were arcade machines EVERYWHERE.

      Maybe you just need to recognize that, inane sarcasm about sample sizes aside, you don't have the slightest clue what you're fucking talking about. Of course, you're quite free to continue believing fiction if you like.

      --
      -1 Uncomfortable Truth
    3. Re:Games are an easy political issue by Stormwatch · · Score: 3, Funny

      and their inferior Sega counterparts

      Troll detected.

      --
      Circumcision is child abuse.
    4. 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.

    5. Re:Games are an easy political issue by Electricity+Likes+Me · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Lots of things can easily be cited.

      For example I can cite that the rise in global temperatures is associated with the decrease in the number of pirates.

    6. Re:Games are an easy political issue by dexotaku · · Score: 4, Funny

      "5 1/2 inch floppy disks."

      Please hand in your geek cred at the front desk. ;)

    7. Re:Games are an easy political issue by joebagodonuts · · Score: 3
      Right - because everyone *knows* kids pick up behavior from games.

      They never pick up behaviors from those around them. Like their parents. Nope. No sir. It's the games.

      --
      "Give a woman two glasses of wine and some pad thai, and they'll agree to just about anything." the Sports Guy
    8. Re:Games are an easy political issue by JosKarith · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Kids pick up behaviour from everything. I grew up with lots of dogs in the house and still have bad habits loike sniffing my food and hitting stairs at a quadrapedal run.
      Here's a concept - rather than more and more rules on what people can do to protect your precious little crotchfruit how's about taking some personal responsibility for that thing that came from you. Teach the kid right and wrong, don't leave it to Uncle TeVee or Aunty Internet. Teach them respect for themselves and other people and that gutter language doesn't make you look big, it makes you look like a child trying too hard to look big.
      But I guess you've already done the easy/fun bit. Everything else is Someone Else's responsibility...
      (BTW joebagofdonuts this isn't a personal rant at you - it's just a general What The hell Is Wrong With You All rant aimed at the world in general)

      --
      'Don't worry' said the trees when they saw the axe coming, 'The handle is one of us.'
  2. 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:How to beat the system? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

      It's harder than that. It depends on where you are and what risks you want to take.

      For example here in WA since we don't have and R18 rating for games, the games are refused classification. Simple possession of RC material is a criminal offense with maximum penalties including jail time, yes even for something like the last mortal kombat game.

      It's thornier for movies such pornography though, for example anything with actual penetration is X18, but that classification only exists in Canberra. So its legal to walk into an adult shop and purchase a video there, you are allowed to own in in most states, but drive across the border to WA or NT and you can end up in jail.

  3. 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+.

  4. I can't be the only one.... by Lord_of_the_nerf · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...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.

  5. Re:South Australia? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's a state within Australia. We have several, including one which looks like a hairy vagina that we all forget about when we draw a map.

    South Australia's capital is called Adelaide. It's nickname is the City of Churches because it has a crapload of churches and a proportionate number of wacko religious fucknuts to go with it. Sunday trading is still an issue and newcomers to the state are hazed by being murdered and dissolve in acid in a barrel and left in a bank vault. Their courts are full of lesbian vampire murderers. Weirdly enough they have a relaxed attitude towards dope and you can have a certain number of plants for "personal use". I call it a place to retire.

    Ben Folds lives there.

    All of the above is true. I swear it's too good to make up.