South Australian AG backs R18+ rating for games

Mike Bantick
Thursday, 28 April 2011 16:26

Your IT - Entertainment

A few years back, when Michael Atkinson was Attorney-General of South Australia, it would have been unheard of to write the heading above.  But now that John Rau is AG in that state it seems sensible discussion about Australia's video-game rating system can be had.

Attorney-General of South Australia John Rau has told the ABC today that he believes a shake up of the classification rating system for video-games and interactive entertainment is needed.

Rau indicated that there is an argument for including a R18+ rating, currently absent from the classification system, and also believes removing the ambiguous MA15+ rating would further enhance clarity of the rating scale.

"There has to be a clear difference between what adults can get and what children can get," he said.
"At the moment the MA15+ classification is like a crossover point between what is acceptable and what is unacceptable.
"We want that to be a very clear gap. We will have a new classification R18+ and the MA15+ will disappear."

The Attorneys-General next meet in July, with discussion of the Australian interactive entertainment classification system on the agenda.  Any national change to the system requires approval from all AG's present, but Rau indicated he is willing to have the changes adopted in South Australia only if necessary.

 

"I will push for the South Australian position on MA15+ games to be adopted nationally, but if it isn't, I'm prepared to go it alone," he said.