Oz internet filter to block sites selling mature games?

PALGN News | Could the days of buying from Play-Asia, eBay and Amazon soon be over?

According to an article in the Sydney Morning Herald , the Australian Government says it will use its internet filter to block websites hosting and selling video games that don't comply with Australia's ratings system. The internet filter is currently being trialled by nine internet service providers and could soon be introduced across all Australian internet services.

A spokesman for Australian Communications Minister, Senator Stephen Conroy, has confirmed the intention to block downloadable games, flash-based web games and sites which sell physical copies of games that do not meet the MA15+ standard, Australia's highest rating.

Colin Jacobs, a spokesman for the online users' lobby group, Electronic Frontiers Australia, said the Government's internet filtering plans had now gone beyond the original intention to help protect against the abuse of children.

"This is confirmation that the scope of the mandatory censorship scheme will keep on creeping," he said. "Far from being the ultimate weapon against child abuse, it now will officially censor content deemed too controversial for a 15-year-old. In a free country like ours, do we really need the government to step in and save us from racy web games?"

Ron Curry, the chief executive of the Interactive Entertainment Association of Australia - which is the group that represents the Australian entertainment industry - said the situation further highlighted the need to have an R18+ rating for games.

"It's through the introduction of an R18+ classification that adults will have access to age appropriate material and parents will have the full tool kit to understand the suitability of content for their children," he said.

The internet filtering issue is also receiving international condemnation with Senator Conroy being nominated by Britain's Internet Services Providers' Association for its annual "internet villain" award. Senator Conroy was nominated "for continuing to promote network-level blocking despite significant national and international opposition".

If you are interested in the ongoing debate for the introduction of an R18+ rating, check out http://everyoneplays.org.au/. Also be sure to make your voice heard by writing a (sensible) letter to Senator Conroy and to your local member.

Related Content

Labor to look seriously into games industry rebate
22 Oct, 2007 If Labor is elected to government, of course...

Final version of Wii Internet Channel now available
12 Apr, 2007 Free until June 30.

Wii Internet Channel available now
22 Dec, 2006 Free beta available for download now.

PagePrevious 1 2 34

75 Comments

Fly

2 years ago

Sin Ogaris wrote

This seems like the opposite of what I said, I said it was BELOW their paygrade, as in the federal police deal with larger scale crimes, a bunch of dudes sharing pictures of naked children on the Web is not really anything they're going to bother with, they'd probably instead go after whoever is creating the images in the first place.

The duties of Firefighters;

Priority #1: Put out fires
Daylight
Priority #2: Remove constraints from stupid people
Priority #3: Rescue furry animals from danger

Pretty sure that some lady's dog who was stuck in a drain pipe and some lady's son who had his hand stuck up the drain pipe trying to reach the dog isn't as important or above their paygrade than putting out fires. Doesn't mean they won't do it or are not trained to help out.

Quote

A tiny yellow tabby kitten has a new home after Topeka firefighters removed her from a storm sewer drain Monday, hours before nearly an inch of rain drenched the city.

Ellen Ross, the new owner, said Wednesday the one-pound kitten surely would have drowned if Ross hadn’t insisted city workers rescue her — even to the point of involving Mayor Bill Bunten.

Woah, even the mayor now, that's one expensive kitty! Those city workers must be paid in leaves and bark or not at all for them to undertake such obviously downgraded work.

The point being the job of the fire brigade is to fight fires, not rescue animals, not free imbeciles from sticking their appendages in things, fight fires. Yet, you would be a heartless individual if you were the firefighter on break, receiving that call and "Is the cat on fire? No? Piss off bitch I'm on break."

The Police are there to enforce the law, not enforce it only where they please, and while they may not care that Billy didn't create the child porn, they care that Billy was in possession of child porn, they care where it came from and they care that it's even being made. It's not below their paygrade, because they're being paid to do their job despite how minuscule the offense may be in any single instance.

Create Piranha taskforce for Victoria's gangland.
Create a Missing persons squad to deal with missing persons.
Create riot police for riots.
Create nothing for child pornography, lets just not look at it anymore.

When the Police want to catch the operators they specialise to do their job regardless of their paygrade. I fail to see a reason why in this case the very minister who should be on top of the situation with regards to nasty elements in the digital economy simply wants to get rid of it so he can't see the problem anymore.

PagePrevious 1 2 34

View as forum topic

Add Comment