The period of public consultation on the issue of whether Australia should have an R18+ rating for videogames is drawing to a close. You have until February 28 to make a submission. Many Kotaku readers already have, and we’re going to share them with you.
Last week we asked you to send us your submission to encourage your fellow Kotaku readers to have their say as well. We said we’d publish your closing 250-word comments. So for the rest of the week we’ll be highlighting some of the best in individual posts.
This submission comes from James Witchard, who writes:
“At the current time, there is a need to change the restrictions. Games nowadays are shovelled through as MA15+ even though the game contains R18 contents, which has a greater chance of minors being exposed to mature content. While this happens to very few games per year, recently a Triple-A title was RC and the game itself was immensely popular. Games like these sell in high numbers therefore strengthening the economy.
Also as an Australian adult who grew up playing computer games, I have found that they have had no negative effects on my personality or any other qualities. I would also like to say that introducing an R18 plus will have a reverse effect on parents enforcing age restrictions, as a parent can easily define the difference between something R rated and something rated lower. There are clear guidelines for a parent buying a game rated R, as opposed to buying a game rated MA which could have been rated R if the option was available.
Game consoles today have a parental control which will limit children from playing R rated games regardless of if the child obtains the game disk, also the home computer can be protected with a password restricting a Childs access to a computer.
There is little demonstrated need to watch films, read books or listen to music. They, like games, are choices. The impact that the lack of a R18+ for games has on the economy is significant, it is a large industry raking in billions of dollars per year. Games which have been RC are easily imported from overseas. That is money that instead of going to Australian retailers has gone to international stores.”
In case you’re yet to state your case, here’s how to do it.
The call for public consultation (AG.gov.au)
The Bond University Interactive Australia report (for helpful research insights)
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