Public to decide on R18+ rating

PALGN News | After Ministers fail to agree.

As we reported earlier in the week, the Attorney General's meeting over whether Australia should have an R18+ rating for games was held earlier today. And the result? A stalemate. The issue will now go to a public consultation.

The exact details of the consultation are currently unknown, but it is expected that the results will be ready to present at the next meeting. According to reports, Victorian Deputy Premier and Attorney-General Rob Hulls pushed in favour of an R18+ rating but was predictably greeted with significant opposition from South Australia's Attorney-General, Michael Atkinson, who continued to push his argument that he was protecting children from "harmful material". However, it is known that for the rating to be passed, there has to be agreement from all the states.

Ron Curry, CEO of the Interactive Entertainment Association of Australia (IEAA), was pleased with the result of the meeting. "Our belief is that good legislation comes from a reflection of community sentiment, so the process that the attorney-general is outlining gives us the opportunity to move this into the public forum for discussion," he said. "We understand that there is a robust legislative process that things must go through, so we have to work through that whole process."

When we find out exactly how the public will be consulted, PALGN will be sure to let you know if you can contribute in any way.

Related Content

Have your say on the R18+ classification
26 Mar, 2008 Before Friday's meeting.

SA Attorney-General to oppose R18+ classification
28 Feb, 2008 Give up hope.

R18+ rating for games being considered in Australia
25 Feb, 2008 We've heard this before.

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77 Comments

bladerunner_97

5 years ago

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG!!!!

MAN!!! We have to get word out so this gets passed!!! THIS IS EPIC!!!

YEAAAAAHHHH!!!!

I'm soooo for this!! Dark Sector getting banned was SO Annoying...

This has to pass..other wise another 4 years of waiting =(

Fly

5 years ago

Beware the soccer mums, R18+ means more parenting means they will vote against it!

But it is a good thing it's pushing past the guys in suits to those would would be impacted by the changes to decide if they really want the change.

ObsoletE

5 years ago

wow, this i did not expect.

very good news not just for gamers, but (imo) parents too.
now we just have to make sure they understand that.

Ken_Gooner

5 years ago

Good to see the government are allowing the public to decide the outcome. That Atkinson bloke must be confident.

mipac

5 years ago

This is not a vote from what I understand. They will just ask some focus groups, and report on the general consensus.

3mt

5 years ago

since the majority of people in australia are not really gamers, they may not be really affected by this decision. However, they are very likely to vote against this option and turn the tide against actual gamers.

mipac

5 years ago

http://www.smh.com.au/news/technology/ministers-fail-to-agree-on-game-rating-change/2008/03/28/1206207383592.html

"Research conducted by Bond University in Queensland for the IEAA found that the average age of Australian gamers is 28 and over 50 per cent of gamers are over 18.

Another survey of 1601 Australian households, conducted by the university in 2005, found 88 per cent of Australians supported an R18+ classification for games."

coco_bagel

5 years ago

This was on "world News Australia" tonight on SBS and they cast the R18+ Classification in a very positive light. The story was basically in favor of the R18+ classification calling it's possible introduction as "crack down on questionable content in video games" which it is because some of these MA15+ games i see on my shelf i honestly believe deserve an R18+ rating and it will take a lot of pressure off the OFLC so they can rate games and hand out more "Accurate" classifications without the gaming public, Developers and publishers breathing down their neck!

It's in every body's best interest for us to get an R18+ rating because it means that it will be just that little bit harder for little jimmy to get his hands on games like "Condemned 2" and "GTA4" because they will have a big old "R18+" sticker on them like they should and not a "MA15+" like they currently have.

NeoSanity

5 years ago

The Christian lobby is already shown support against this going through. We need to start lobbying for this, and start really pushing our opinions on the matter forward.

Maikii

5 years ago

Screenplay has an online vote:
http://blogs.theage.com.au/screenplay/archives//009002.html
currently 54% YES, 46% NO (8,500 votes ...)

Shadow Wave

5 years ago

from the press release..

"Mr Hulls said it was anticipated that should an R18+ classification for computer games be introduced, games containing extreme violence, explicit sexual material, instruction in crime or characters using illegal drugs would continue to be refused classification."

can anyone say WTF or LAME or that defeats the purpose!?

mipac

5 years ago

Shadow Wave wrote

Extreme violence: Key-word is "extreme". As in, snuff.

Explicit sexual material: I don't know of many games that were banned because of sexual material (besides San Andreas, which was a worldwide thing), so a non-issue.

Instruction in crime: Don't want that type of thing in my country.

Using illegal drugs: This surely means promoting the use of illegal drugs, there are plenty of games on shelves today with drug use.

It all comes down to the context that the game uses the issue in.

Shadow Wave

5 years ago

I hope its not a "oh lets make all the MA games R, and now we'll keep banning the should be R games"

Lord Halo Nerd

5 years ago

I bet you we shall see a Current Affair or Today Tonight episode saying this will make all gamers muderous fiends.

longarms

5 years ago

I'm just wondering if this will really change anything. As all 3 of the console manufactures do not allow 18+ games on there consoles in the US. So I’m wondering If they will do the same here. Making the whole R18+ rating as irrelevant as the AO18+ rating in America?

xloserfishx

5 years ago

Lord Halo Nerd wrote

I bet you we shall see a Current Affair or Today Tonight episode saying this will make all gamers muderous fiends.

Oh geez i can see it now... "This 14 year old boy says that playing games has made him a mass murderer... It hasn't happened yet, but this shonky plumber thinks it will definitely come true"

longarms wrote

As all 3 of the console manufactures do not allow 18+ games on there consoles in the US.

This may be true, but their next highest rating (M) has this description:

"Titles rated M (Mature) have content that may be suitable for persons ages 17 and older. Titles in this category may contain intense violence, blood and gore, sexual content and/or strong language"

Whereas AO "may include prolonged scenes of intense violence and/or graphic sexual content and nudity."

This means that our R rating would fall into both the M and AO categories of the American system.

We need this R rating to let the majority of gamers in Australia enjoy the quality games we keep missing out on.

Daniel Golding

5 years ago

"Consult the public" is an interesting term. It almost definitely won't be a referendum, so I imagine it'll be a token exercise in order to convince the SA Attorney General to change his mind, which seems unlikely.

But all it takes to remove his opposition is a cabinet reshuffle, or a change of government in South Australia (next election scheduled for early 2010). Realistically, all it would take would be the SA premier to tap him on the shoulder and tell him the game is up.

Eyce

5 years ago

longarms wrote

The 18+ Rating in the UK is perfectly fine by console manufacturers, along with the New Zealand Rating as well.

xloserfishx

5 years ago

This is an open letter to the Attorney General of S.A. I think the most relevant quote for the above argument is this:

"Many games currently receiving MA15+ classification in Australia (a rating that studies have found that many Australians do not understand) are rated R18+ in countries like Britain.

Some examples include God of War: Chains of Olympus, Army of Two, Dead Rising, BioShock, Gears of War, Kane & Lynch: Dead Men, Saints Row, Hitman: Blood Money and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas."

Seeing as our European counterparts are playing R18+ on their consoles I don't think this will be a problem for our consoles

Kurupt

5 years ago

I will be voting against this. Our country does not need an R18+ classification. It's only leading to trouble.

Now watch me get negged to the max.

xloserfishx

5 years ago

Kurupt wrote

I will be voting against this. Our country does not need an R18+ classification. It's only leading to trouble.

How is it leading to trouble? It works fine everywhere else it is in place, why not Australia? (If you can make a good argument i will forgive you for saying this

)

Daniel Golding

5 years ago

Kurupt wrote

I will be voting against this.

You won't be voting for anything. It's almost absurdly unlikely that this will go to referendum, or even a plebiscite. It'll be focus groups, small sample polls, perhaps an open invitation to let your local MP know what you think.

vauxhall

5 years ago

xloserfishx wrote

"Many games currently receiving MA15+ classification in Australia (a rating that studies have found that many Australians do not understand) are rated R18+ in countries like Britain.

This argument's absurd. As someone who has worked in government for many years, I am happy to tell you that this is more likely to convince Attorneys-General that the current classification system isn't working and that games are being wrongly classified than to convince them to bring in an R18 classification.

Toastfarmer

5 years ago

vauxhall wrote

xloserfishx wrote

"Many games currently receiving MA15+ classification in Australia (a rating that studies have found that many Australians do not understand) are rated R18+ in countries like Britain.

But that's the point. Games are being wrongly classified because the top end of the scale (R18+) is missing and therefore this upper tier of adult games have either been banned, or shunted into an inappropriate category, being the MA15 rating. The argument is far from absurd, it makes perfect sense. Australia cleverly manages to have a system simultaneously stricter and more relaxed than the rest of the world. 15 year olds can buy GTA, but 18 year olds can't buy Dark Sector.

You're saying that this argument would convince Atkinson that games are being wrongly classified rather than to bring in an R18 classification. But Atkinson doesn't believe the system should be changed. He can't acknowledge one without the other, unless he's going to try and shift it even further into lunacy and claim that the games at the upper tier of MA15 that would ideally be R18 should also be banned, which simply won't happen because I'm sure he values his job.

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