Mike Bantick
Wednesday, 17 February 2010 13:24
Opinion and Analysis
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South Australian Attorney-General Michael Atkinson has been stalwart in his opposition to the introduction of a R18+ Classification for video games. In doing so the ire of an increasingly broad game playing community has been raised. So much so that Mr Atkinson believes he and his family are more at risk from the gaming community than the bikers offended by his anti-motorcycle gang laws.
Australia is pretty much the only developed country that has not developed a mechanism for allowing mature content to be classified when it comes to video-games.
Increasingly, as the video-game industry and demographic matures, this has led to games being either banned from sale in Australia, or worse, slipping into the current top classification MA 15+.
The result is confusion for consumers, incorrect demographic classification for titles or censorship of adult material intended for adults.
The reason for this hinges back to attempts to update the original 1973 classification laws which need agreement from all Australian State’s Attorney’s-General. This has not occurred, with the most outspoken opposition coming from the South Australian Attorney-General Senator Michael Atkinson.
Senator Atkinson’s basic premise for not supporting the introduction of an R18+ Classification is that there is no need for the risk of children to be exposed to levels of violence, sex or other mature themes in modern interactive entertainment, and that we cannot trust parents to be informed enough on these matters to do the restricting. Thus it is up to the Government to judge these things for us.
On Monday night’s
ABC2 program Good Game, Senator Atkinson, along with the Game Developers Association of Australia president Tom Crago, and Gamers4Croydon representatives David Doe and Kat Nicholson were asked about the issue.
Crago pointed out the numbers behind the debate, including the simple fact that the average age of a gamer in Australia is “...29, not 9”.
CONCLUDED on PAGE 2
