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Australian Gamers Finally Get an R-18+ Category
Dexter Herbivore writes "A lot of Australian gamers are saying, 'finally' as legislation passed parliament to support the introduction of a R-18+ category for games. From the article: 'Jason Clare, the Minister for Home Affairs has just announced that R18+ for games is set to become a reality, after legislation successfully passing through the Federal Parliament, having just gone through the Senate without amendment.'"
Where you can legally buy a video game.
Hell, it's about time.
The Official Site of 1337 Pwnage
Thank God they finally get to see boobies and guns. Huzza!!
Each state still needs to pass complementary legislation for it to become a reality since classification remains a state issue
I bet now a bunch of retailers refuse to carry +r18 games, so publishers/developers still will make censored versions for Australia.
Because an interactive porn game would just get the controller sticky. And I don't even want to think about the vibrate function.
The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rez#Trance_Vibrator
Of course if it's marketed as some kind of medical evaluation for the prostrate, you can side-step the pr0n label and go right to Health Awareness
kind of medical evaluation for the prostrate
So it is a medical evaluation for those who are laying flat?
It moves a threshold. It's not that all bets are off. All of the British devolved countries inherited some sort of official censorship board, which will have gone through various stages of renaming and so on. But there will still be material that in some way offends the senses and isn't considered suitable for any agegroup. If the Aussie politicians are smart (good luck with that) they'll just adopt the PEGI system and be done with it. But I'm sure they'll find a way to waste money ensuring local sensibilities are met.
Previously, the highest rating available for games was MA15+ (Mature Audiences), which is meant for 15-18 year olds. If a game was not able to fit in this category for any reason (language, sex, nudity, etc), then it was placed in Refuse Classification. There are other ways for a game to receive an RC status, such as promoting serious crimes, pedophilia, etc. Note that RC exists for films, books and magazines too - its just that these other categories have R18 and X18 categories available, meaning there is much greater scope for being able to correctly rate a piece of media.
And don't be fooled by the term RC. It is legal to purchase or possess RC material (with exceptions such as child pornography), but illegal to sell, publish and show in public. Import restrictions prevent importing RC material, but AFAIK, the case of if downloading is considered importing was never defined in legislation, nor tested in court.
It's also noteworthy that the idiot we have a Federal Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy, is planning to have his mandatory Internet filter block all RC content. Before this new legislation, a screenshot from a game not suitable for 15 years would have been blocked for every Australian, if the filter was already in place. There is a review happening on the RC category, but considering there has been significant noise about the R18+ category for games happening for a good 5 years, I can't see much else changing.
It's also noteworthy that the idiot we have a Federal Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy, is planning to have his mandatory Internet filter block all RC content
He's gone quiet on the internet filter lately, since he's realised that it has been detracting from his good idea (The NBN) but the filter was only for child pornography and real illegal things. Not that I don't disagree it could have been expanded in the future - I don't agree with any kind of government filtering - but "blocking all RC content" would be completely impossible, since the block list would be bigger than the Great Firewall of China! And with the NBN fully operational the block list would actually be harder to implement/justify.
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no sig for you. come back one year.
Now where the hell is my Atari 2600? Damnit!
Vote monkeys into Congress. They are cheaper and more trustworthy.
Scroll down to "A fool's paradise" to see an example of the fucking curmudgeons that this will drive out of the woodwork.
Athy, athier, athiest.