To begin with, it’s unclear why Australia didn’t begin with an R-rating for games. Perhaps it was the idea that games were strictly “for kids”. What’s more clear is that it is possible to argue that Australia missed out on an R-rating for videogames because of the moral panic induced by the Port Arthur massacre in 1996. This was the moment that videogames began to establish that they would feature mature content, and it’s the moment that countries around the world began to consider their own classifications. Yet, in Australia, we were looking to reduce the influence that violent culture had in our society (and it is only an issue of violence, despite some recent claims that R-rated games would be “pornography”).
Perhaps the most common argument for an R-rating for games is the old chestnut: “films have it, so why don’t we?” In fact, it seems that many, if not most advocates of such a rating for videogames take the R-rating for film in Australia for granted. This should not be the case. In fact, a look at how the rating was fought for, and introduced is illustrative, and infinitely helpful for our current situation.
Grand Theft Auto IV - censored in Australia.
It was not until 1971 that Australia introduced an R classification for film. Before this introduction, films were often heavily censored to strict guidelines. David Stratton, in his memoirs, recalls a conversation with Australia’s chief censor in 1966: “‘We made a big step forward with classifying They’re a Weird Mob,’ he told me, with a perfectly straight face. ‘They use the word “bloody” eighty times in that film and we didn’t cut it once!’” This was only 40 years ago. Now classic films like Bonnie and Clyde, A Fistful of Dollars and Easy Rider were subject to serious edits by the Film Censorship Board before being shown to Australian audiences. Others still were banned outright. Australia was reasonably unique in its regulations - Britain had implemented an X rating which enabled most films to get through uncensored since 1951, while the US had allowed more violence, sexual content and certain four-letter words for some time despite their formal classification system only being introduced in 1968. It was argued by several contemporary critics that film was harshly censored in Australia because it was long regarded as just entertainment for the masses, rather than art. Sound familiar?
With the introduction of the R-rating, (aided, in no small part, by the appointment of soon-to-be Democrats founder Don Chipp as Minister for Customs and Excise) the cinema was made largely free of government edits, though that is not to say that censorship was vanquished. It only took a year for the first film - Skyjacked, starring Charlton Heston - to be refused permission to screen in Australia. Even now, decades later, films are still occasionally refused classification. In 2003, Ken Park was banned, and an attempted protest screening was broken up by NSW Police. More frequently, films receive edited versions for Australian release. Films like GoldenEye and Scream remain only available in their censored form in Australia.
Bonnie and Clyde - the GTA of the 1960s?
But do videogames in Australia even deserve an R-rating? It’s a tougher question than many think. Certainly, from a philosophical point of view it is undeniable that videogames offer no distinction significant enough to warrant exclusion over other adults-only media. But the question of actually deserving, rather than intellectually warranting or justifying is murkier. The mainstream industry seemingly does not yet recognise the difference between the contents of a game, and what it actually endorses. For example, we may see child rape in a film and understand that the filmmakers are condemning it. In a game, the distinction is not yet so clear, though recent examples provide hope.
Also, as much as the industry might argue otherwise, there is yet to truly be a public campaign for the rating. Most of the struggle over the last decade has been through private lobby groups, and more recently, through internet-led action. The R-rating for film was only introduced after years of campaigning by anti-censorship groups. The Melbourne and Sydney film festivals refused to show censored films and publicised the edits that had been made. When the Swedish film I Love, You Love was banned from the Sydney Film Festival in 1969, the Festival’s subscribers paid for an entire page of The Australian to be taken out in protest, featuring hundreds of signatures on a petition, garnering huge mainstream media attention. In contrast, before gaming forums got wind of it, a poll on media giant Fairfax’s website gauging support for the rating was skewed more in the negative. The recent decision to consult the public on the introduction of an R-rating was met more loudly with criticism than praise in the mainstream. If there is an R-rating introduced, it will be only through happy coincidence and big business lobbying, rather than grassroots pressure.
All these items have been banned, censored or restricted in Australia at some point.
What all this harks back to, when we are talking about videogames, is a confusion between classification and censorship. Though related, they are two very different things, and have marked differences in the way a government approaches its citizens. Censorship is an act of suppression, determined by the government, while classification focuses on educating the populace in order to make their own decisions (with the exception of age-enforced exclusions). What this means, essentially, is that the implementation of an R-rating is for practical purposes an act of reducing constraint, rather than increasing it. We might talk about an R-rating as a restriction, but your average opponent immediately recognises it for what it actually is - increased freedom of availability. This is what many proponents of such a classification miss when they argue that an R-rating would actually help protect children, or shared morals. This may be correct, but on a fundamental level, we want this rating so we can play these games, and not necessarily to protect innocent eyes. Therefore, we have to convince an increasingly-skeptical public that games containing content suitable only for those 18 and over is actually a good idea, in and of itself.
Finally, as important as an R-rating is, it will not prove to be the end of gaming censorship. Films still have trouble making it to the public without being government- or self-censored, and games, such as Manhunt illustrate that countries with an 18+ rating are still very willing to ban games that push the line too far. Even an assortment of books are still banned in Australia, including two radical Islamic publications banned in 2006. The R-rating might be an important step for the Australian games industry, but the censorship debate will never go away.
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