Earlier communication from the Classification Review has continually argued for an increased amount of industry regulation when it comes to classification in Australia and the final report, which was released today, reinforces these earlier statements. The final recommendations argue for an increased amount of industry co-regulation, and complete parity when it comes to classification.
Australians currently don’t have access to Xbox LIVE Indie Games — a fact that irritates many — but it’s also something that bothers Jeremy Hinton, Group Category Manager at Microsoft Australia. According to him, Microsoft is looking to the Classification Review to make launching Xbox LIVE Indie a possibility in Australia.
Just recently the Classification Review presented its first proposals for discussion – proposals that completely surprised us. Allowing for industry co-regulation, admitting the failures of the Classification Act – why was everyone making sense all of a sudden? We decided to talk to Terry Flew, chair of the Classification Review, for more insight. Meet the man who wants to revolutionise video game classification in Australia.
The introduction of an R18+ rating for games has been approved by the Attorneys-General, with amended guidelines currently in the process of being finalised, yet the ALRC are still discussing precisely what recommendations will be put to the Australian Government when they present their findings early next year on general classification. A discussion paper has just been released with some early proposals for discussion, and heavy industry regulation of video game classification is among those recommendations.
Australia has received the green-light for an R18+ rating for video games, but many people are still unsure of what this means for them as gamers. Will this lead to MA15+ games being bumped up into the R18+ category? Will formerly Refused Classification games suddenly make it through with an R18+ rating? We looked into the Classification Act to find out.
The Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) is currently seeking volunteers for a pilot focus group program as part of a review of the Australian classification system, so if you want to help shape the way games, movies, and publications are classified, now is your chance.
