AU Deputy Premier: Rethink Game Bans

Public Inquiry Into MA15+ Rating to Begin

Debate and controversy in the UK surrounding games and violence is already beginning there with the release of the Brown report. In Australia, it didn’t take a study for the government to try and get with the times.

GameSpot AU reports that Attorneys General for both territory, state, and federal levels of the Aussie government met recently to discuss and agree to talk to their constituents regarding the current classification system in Australia. Currently, the most mature rating a game can get in Australia is the one that automatically makes it illegal for sale: MA15+. The rating is opposed to R18+ categories for films. No timetable has been set for the inquiry.

One of the more vocal critics of the ban on games making the MA15+ is Rob Hulls, deputy premier and attorney general of Victoria. In a statement, he wrote:

It seems inconsistent that in Australia, adults are allowed to view ‘adult only’ films which have been classified R18+ by the Classification Board, but not computer games with an equivalent high level content[....]With the increasing convergence between films and games, the different approach to classification principles is difficult to sustain. At the moment, Australia is out of step with the rest of the developed world on this issue.

Still, there are opponents of the idea, and that may make following through on this concept difficult.  All of the Attorneys General in Australia would have to agree to a revision to the ratings system.