jkipp82
10-01-2011, 09:31 PM
3116
The Australian Law Reform Commission has been listening, and after hours of bureaucratic thought, research, filing papers, losing papers, rewriting those papers, finding the originals and sobbing quietly at their cubicles, the Australian government has proposed a Discussion Paper (http://www.alrc.gov.au/publications/national-classification-scheme-review-dp-77) to revamp media classification ratings, including those for video games.
The paper addresses issues of hypocrisy in its games-rating system, citing how long it took for the R18+ rating (http://www.joystiq.com/2011/08/10/australia-finally-getting-its-r18-rating/) to be implemented, and how its absence was restrictive to adults in the country:
"Major inconsistencies exist in the application of classification guidelines across media platforms. The major anomaly has been in the treatment of computer games as compared to films and publications, with the absence of an R 18+ classification for computer games," the paper reads.
"This decision, which has only recently been reversed, can be seen as overly restricting the rights of adults to access content on a particular media platform, and as marking a reversion to earlier censorship-based understandings of the role of government."
The Australian Law Reform Commission has been listening, and after hours of bureaucratic thought, research, filing papers, losing papers, rewriting those papers, finding the originals and sobbing quietly at their cubicles, the Australian government has proposed a Discussion Paper (http://www.alrc.gov.au/publications/national-classification-scheme-review-dp-77) to revamp media classification ratings, including those for video games.
The paper addresses issues of hypocrisy in its games-rating system, citing how long it took for the R18+ rating (http://www.joystiq.com/2011/08/10/australia-finally-getting-its-r18-rating/) to be implemented, and how its absence was restrictive to adults in the country:
"Major inconsistencies exist in the application of classification guidelines across media platforms. The major anomaly has been in the treatment of computer games as compared to films and publications, with the absence of an R 18+ classification for computer games," the paper reads.
"This decision, which has only recently been reversed, can be seen as overly restricting the rights of adults to access content on a particular media platform, and as marking a reversion to earlier censorship-based understandings of the role of government."