Invite to Stephen King; come to Australia to stop game bans

Mike Bantick
Wednesday, 09 April 2008 08:43

Opinion and Analysis

Horror author Stephen King is reportedly upset about the possible banning of violent video games.  Mr King, here is an open invite to make your voice heard for a whole country that lives with game bans everyday.

In his regular column for Entertainment Weekly the author has had a dig at the State of Massachusetts and a proposed plan to ban the sale of violent games to minors.

"What makes me crazy is when politicians take it upon themselves to play surrogate parents. The results of that are usually disastrous. Not to mention undemocratic," wrote King.

Forget Massachusetts Steve, take a trip Downunder where the whole country lives under an ‘undemocratic’ nanny shadow. 

Sure there have not been many games banned by the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC), and those that have probably were not great games to begin with (BMX XXX anybody?).

But games do get modified for sale in the Australian market, most recently Grand Theft Auto IV , which will be shoehorned into the MA15+ rating – the most liberal in Australia.

This of course not only compromises artistic endeavours but encourages the grey import market.

So Steve, come out and have a chat to the Australian Attorneys-General, they have recently met regarding the issue , and decided to ask for public consultation.  Surely a high profile American can sway them, God knows we usually throw our own actors into causes such as this, but why not grab an outraged foreigner to run with the campaign?