Hooray for puritanism!

@ some guy: You hit the nail on the head, squire. Here are your complimentary 10 points.

once again a political talking head forgets the rights and RESPONSIBILITIES of parents and adults...

good to see him pwned

"I do not want children to be able to get their hands on R18+ games easily. I understand that the lack of an R18+ classification denies some adults the chance to play some games, however, the need to keep potentially harmful material away from children is far more important…"

For the umpteenth time, this is the parent's responsibility!

DANMNIT

Now we'll NEVER get the R18 rating. NEVER

Good job Ausfailia.

Just a little typo correction, the highest current rating for games is MA15+. Oh, and speaking for all 18+ Australian gamers, we want the R rating. Seriously.

"I contest any idea that it is necessary for movies to include material of this kind and that a movie is more interesting to an adult because it contains extreme violence, explicit sexual material, instruction in crime or characters using illicit drugs…"

Fixed.

He has a point about the parental locks on consoles (they are basically useless), but what he needs to realize that video games, like ALL other entertainment media, have many different demographics, and by restricting content to only what is appropriate for children they are doing a serious disservice to those gamers who are 18 and up. How would he like to turn on the tv and only have children's programming available to watch? Or walk into a movie theater and the only movie available is Hannah Montana? It's basically the same thing here.

I am really puzzled as to why someone would EVER successfully argue that an 18+ rating is bad for the children.

18-year-olds are in most jurisdictions considered adults after all.

Just another clueless idiot.

I don't approve of shouting people down but wth is this guy talking about.

If protecting children is so important then by his rational plenty of films should also be banned for their adult content. After all it's just as easy, if not easier, for a child to pick up and watch an 18 cert film found in the house... and what about the internet? Should Australia ban home use of the web because children might access adult material on it?

Gift.

Question for Austrailian gamers here:

Are the anti-game people in your country largely motivated by religion like they are in the USA?

If I get a kid, and he tries to hack through the parental controls.. I'll beat him. I'm a supporter of corporal punishment.

Perhaps sex should be regulated as well. Children could walk in on their parents while having sex.

"Are the anti-game people in your country largely motivated by religion like they are in the USA?"

That's just it - we don't really have any anti-game people outside of the government. While they may be out there they certainly aren't as vocal as the ones in the States. People here are pretty reasonable when it comes to matters like this. I still contend the majority of opponents aren't motivated by religion but rather by a lack of social understanding and absolutely no way to cope realistically with new things (ie technology). My pastor plays Halo religiously (pun intended) and I make a living developing games. If something was awry with that we'd be the first to know. The beauty of our parliament is that occasionally somebody will say something stupid, as is the case here, and they'll pretty much get called a wanker. Don't expect this objection to do anything but bolster the case FOR the new rating. When we can drop f-bombs at anytime of the day on national television any case for protecting the children Lovejoy style gets the boot...

Clever

PS: I'm so sure we have Bulletproof here because I saw it in the "50-Cent" bin at JBHi-Fi and quite literally lol'd....

@ E. Zachary Knight
"So are Australian AG’s appointed or are they elected?"
The AG is like the Minister for Law. They're a member of parliament in the Gov't party who is appointed to that position by the party leadership.
It isn't an independent position like the US AG is (or supposed to be). Just another front bencher who gets their talking points from the party/PM.


@ Zerodash
"Are the anti-game people in your country largely motivated by religion like they are in the USA?"
We don't have anything like Jack Thompson over here, but there is one Federal Senator from the 'Family First' who is the kind that would scream "Won't somebody think of the children?!" who would be against this issue, against porn and generally right-wing..
Not sure about the State Gov'ts.

Is he suggesting a normal 7-13 year old can hack their console to get around the parental control lock?

Just because one can use a computer does not give them an MIT degree (no matter what radio or tv commercial one might have seen).

Oh Australian stingrays. Why couldn't you have gnoe after Atkinson and not Steve Irwin.......

um, there are no ways around the parental locks unless you know the pass word, with a 4 number combination, there's 9,999 possible codes, chances are parents could be home by the time the kid figures out the code.

@ MonkeyPeaches

Actually that is 10,000 combinations. 0000 to 9999. Start at base zero.

Wait wait wait wait wait.

How do games NOT pass MA15+? There's a plus sign on the end, that means 15 (#) and up (+). Does Oz having a different idea about how a plus sign works?

@ Velkrin

Because a game rated 15+ can still be played by 15 year olds. The plus sign is just there to say that the game is suitable for persons aged 15 and over. Which is retarded. It's not like they're going to make a rating that's okay for 40 year olds but not okay for 50 year olds. But yeah, a game fails to pass 15+ when it is deemed not suitable for 15 year olds.

@ Asmo :
"It’s literally one guy representing an extremely small minority.

For example, the government’s free internet filter (for protecting ze children) released last year was initially downloaded by ~60,000 iirc but the number of people still updating it has dropped to just under 7,000. Out of a population of 22 odd million.

This guy is the only AG blocking this move. At best he represents the residents of the state he was elected in (South Australia) while 5 other states and 2 territories are arguing for an R18+ rating. "

It should be noticed that when I was trying to find a way to bypass it for a friend, I noticed that this site was blocked.

No points for guessing why nobody updates it.

I hardly think that the average minor knows how to crack these controls unless they have been studying very hard.


BTW, Is there parental controls for the PS2? If so, I've never noticed.

It's official, Australia is running a children-ocracy.

@JustChris

Nah, our media is just desperate for something to fill slow news days and whilst the news is generally moderate and responsible, the current affairs shows have devolved from investigative journalism to tabloid rag in the last 10 years or so. That kind of show is now the perfect outlet for the "Society gone to the dogs" stories, so much so that a comedy show calld The Chaser's War On Everything kept a scoreboard of the 2 major current affairs shows & the story types they ran.

@ Oz

Atkinson was speaking in the South Australian state parliament.

@ Tim "Timbo" Kowalenko :
"On behalf on South Australia, I apologize for Mr Atkinsons actions."

Accepted. Though I'd rather see HIM apologise.

I have to agree with you on every point you have made. I am all for an R+18 rating in games, such as what is already in place for movies, because it will allow something very VERY important for a game retail worker like mysef e.g.

Retailers: Hi how are you today. Looking to pick that one you today are you? Well, that's an +18 rated game; show me some I.D. Don't have it? Bad luck sorry you can't buy it then. Why can't you buy it? Because it's illegal for me to sell it to you without seeing your I.D. first, that's why... (end scene)

Did anybody else see what just happened then?

The ONLY thing we need, and i do stress ONLY: is to make it illegal to buy a game such as those with R+18 without proper identification - PROBLEM SOLVED

Now if the South Australian Attorney-General Michael Atkinson can't get THAT through his thick, out-dated skull, then i truly believe our efforts are doomed, as it could not be any simpler

- Aron Shick