South Australia plans to restrict the sale of MA15+ games to 18-year-olds, according to a report by GameSpot Australia.
ACT’s Attorney General Simon Corbell has always been one of the most outspoken AsG in favour of an R18+ rating for Australia, so it makes sense that his state would be the first to put through R18+ legislation at a State level. If all goes to plan, ACT could be the first Australian state to officially pass an adult rating for games.
As part of the Classification Review, the Australian Law Reform Commission, with the help of Ubris, put together a survey on attitudes to high level content in the MA15+ to RC classification categories. According to the survey, participants were largely unoffended by video game content that had been refused classification.
Remember in Back to the Future 2 when Marty McFly goes back in time and everything’s totally screwed up because Biff Tannen stole the almanac? Well this fictional R18+ story is a bit like that. Written by Raygun Brown, it’s a cautionary tale. We’re so close to an adult rating for games in Australia, but what would happen if it was snatched away?
R18+ legislation has taken its first tentative steps forward, passing through the House of Represenatives without amendment.
After the R18+ classification bill was presented to Parliament on February 15, the Coalition asked that the bill be sent for an inquiry. That inquiry has now come back with the clear recommendation that the amendments to the Classification Act be made, and that an R18+ rating for video games should be implemented in Australia.
On February 15 Jason Clare introduced the R18+ classification amendment to parliament, taking the first step towards implementing an adult rating for video games in Australia. Since then, we learned that the Coalition requested that the proposed bill will be sent to an inquiry. That’s disappointing, but for now let’s enjoy — if that’s the right word — watching Jason Clare present the proposed amendment to Parliament, via the wonder of youtube!
We’ve just heard word from Ed Husic, MP for Chifley, who has tweeted that the Coalition has asked that the R18+ bill be sent for an inquiry.
It’s been a long time coming — today the Federal Minister for Home Affairs, Jason Clare, introduced the R18+ bill in parliament and announced that it is expected to come into effect early 2013.
Gamespot is reporting that an R18+ rating for games will be put to Federal Parliament on February 7, which is the first step required for an adult rating to be introduced in Australia.
