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Radioactive IT Hey Politicians! Stop wasting my money
Radioactive IT Hey Politicians! Stop wasting my money | Hey Politicians! Stop wasting my money |
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| Radioactive IT - Gaming and Entertainment tech blog | |
| by Mike Bantick | |
| Tuesday, 28 October 2008 | |
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The discussion continues: Senator BARNETT-Some of us are dumbfounded as to why we do not have an R rating for video games. Can you share any argument as to why we do not? Ms Davies-In order to make any changes to the classification code and guidelines, including introducing a new classification, you need to have unanimous agreement from all state and territory ministers and the Commonwealth minister. To date, that has not been obtained. Senator BARNETT-We have got a real problem here, haven't we, because South Australia is opposing the position. Ms Davies-The South Australian Attorney is on record on a number of occasions as opposing the introduction of an R18+ classification. Senator BARNETT-We have a real problem, and this is something the Senate and the parliament is going to have to address. If we have one state opposing this, South Australia, then clearly we are not going to have any R rating of video games. That simply cannot occur as a matter of course legally. And then; CHAIR-With the states and territories, you have said South Australia has not agreed. Can you tell us why there has been no response from Western Australia? Ms Davies-The letters went out just at the beginning of the period when Western Australia went into caretaker. We got a response saying that there would not be a response till after the election, and I assume that the incoming Attorney-General has not yet had the opportunity to consider it. I know Attorney-General’s are busy people, and they would hear from many groups with barrows to push, but it has been months now, surely there is not too much to digest on this matter in order to make a measured response on the matter. Finally: Senator MARSHALL-Going back to video games, and maybe I did not pick this up in the discussion. Are there people actually trying to get R-rated video games or computer games, however they are described, classified? Is that what is generating the need, or is it that we believe that for existing games the classification needs to go further so there is an R classification? Ms Booyar-The classification board cannot classify content of a video game that exceeds the MA15+ classification, because there is not one available. Those classifications are available in other jurisdictions. I would suspect that gamers.... Senator MARSHALL-Other jurisdictions outside of Australia? Ms Booyar-Yes. Senator MARSHALL-So by not having an R classification we are in fact keeping out of the legal market anyway for anything above 15+. Ms Booyar-As far as the board is concerned, we must refuse classification to anything that exceeds MA15+. Please start spending my Tax dollars on education and health, these two fundamental aspects of life will have a greater impact on the ‘protection of kiddies’ than failed ISP filtering or failure to act on a sensible and popular approach to the classification of our media. And in many ways we get a little caught up in the whole need to protect our children. We sometimes forget not only our own upbringing, but perhaps just how switched on a young mind can be, able to easily distinguish fantasy from reality. An example from mere hours ago in my own household: My seven year old daughter singing a schoolyard game song... “My boyfriend gave me an apple” “My boyfriend gave me a pear” “My boyfriend gave me a kiss and then pushed me down the stairs” I said “That’s terrible!” – thinking the linking of a kiss from a boy with the violence of being shoved down the staircase not a great example for the younger set, but her response to my outrage was immediate and perspective placing. “It’s just a song dad – sheesh!” |
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