Adults Only

As Shmitee pointed out, our federal government is undertaking consultation to see whether Aussies feel the need for an R18+ rating classification for games.

I know there are more serious issues facing Australia at the moment, and more important ones to be passionate about, but we have been given the opportunity to voice our opinions on this issue, and I think it’s worth taking.

As I responded to the consultation questions (based on arguments from the discussion paper) I couldn’t help feeling that some of the arguments both for and against the R18+ classification were shallow and kinda’ missed the point.

For example, a couple of the arguments supporting the R18+ classification seemed entirely arbitrary and at least one of the arguments against the R18+ classification didn’t actually require that we not have an R18+ classification. I ended up feeling the need to complete the ‘comments’ section of my submission to explain why my responses may appear confused.

I thought I might take the opportunity to share these comments publicly. Hopefully they help to clarify that we can have an R18+ classification for games without putting minors at increased risk:

I fully support the addition of an R18+ classification for games released in Australia. The ability to access and play R18+ games is an important liberty that should be afforded Australian adults. However, I don’t believe that every game developed is suitable to be released within Australia, so I support the plan to maintain the ability to refuse classification for games with truly extreme themes or content.

International parity is not necessarily a valuable goal for any legislation/policy (unless we agree with the particular international policy). It would be far more beneficial for Australia to set it’s own benchmarks for what is suitable for adults and children of different ages. This however does not mean that we have the right to prevent adults from accessing content because it is inappropriate for minors.

Existing or future research may confirm that the interactive nature of games increase the negative impacts of violent content. If this trend can be confirmed I support this being taken into account when classifying games, even if it meant that the types of content that are considered suitable for each classification in Australia are more conservative than in other countries. Likewise, this would mean that while “consistent classification categories for films and computer games are easier to understand”, complete consistency between game and movie classification may not be appropriate. In other words: The same types of content may be less suitable for a game than they are for a movie under the same classification.

Even without the existence of an R18+ classification for games, minors can currently access unsuitable game content through a number of means. Regardless of whether an R18+ classification is introduced for games in Australia or not, parent/guardian involvement and diligence remains the best method of protecting minors from unsuitable content in games, movies or other media. It is fair to say that we should protect minors from the results of poor parenting, but I don’t believe preventing adults from accessing adult content is an acceptable solution. Other measures ranging (in terms of obtrusiveness) from parent awareness and education campaigns through to child safety intervention should be considered instead.

Regardless of whether you agree or not, I encourage you to get involved and submit your opinions.