Smallest mainland state right to censor games for Australia?

Stan Beer
Monday, 31 March 2008 15:44

Opinion and Analysis

South Australia is the second smallest state in Australia, with just over 7% of the nation's population. Yet Michael Atkinson, the attorney general of this smallest mainland state, is dictating to the whole nation what video games adults are legally allowed to play. The question is whether Mr Atkinson is making Australia a laughing stock in the developed world by keeping us from implementing  an R18+ rating for games or is he a lone voice of sanity in the wilderness?

Mr Atkinson's view that it is necessary to deny adults from buying, renting and playing R18+ games in order to protect children from exposure to these games is one that many adult gamers and freedom of expression advocates find irksome. However, it is also a view that will resonate with many concerned parents already worried by the level of unsavoury material their children are being exposed to in this so-called information age.

Having viewed some of the extreme violence, profanity and sexually explicit action already present in some MA15+ games, one wonders how much further games developers need to go to make their products appealing enough to indulge the fantasies of adult gamers. However, there is no question that there is a very strong market for it, just as there is a market for R18+ and X-rated movies.

Some of us remember a time about 20-30 years ago when most corner video libraries stocked X-rated movies. Porn had in effect become main stream in the age of "permissiveness". These days, we've pulled back somewhat from that position and R18+ movies is as extreme as you can get from most video stores.

However, that's the crux of the matter as far as games publishers, developers, and adult gamers are concerned. If an adult can legally watch, buy and rent an R18+ movie, why can't the same rating be applied to video games?

After all, the argument that if the R18+ classification is enough to protect minors from being damaged by adult movies, it should also be enough to protect them from adult games seems reasonable. Although some parents are probably lax in policing their kids exposure to R18+ movie videos that they've brought home, in general the law seems to work quite well in this regard.