R18+ Rating: Where We're At, and What You Can Do to Help

[News Portal]

Good news, everyone! This Wednesday saw the introduction of a bill to introduce an R18+ rating for games. Once it becomes law, our Classification Board will have the power to allow games made for adults to be sold in Australia. Us adults will finally make our own choices about what we play. Yet before the bill becomes law, three hurdles must be overcome - let's gather around and listen as bona fide gaming lawyer Patrick Vuleta explains.

Read full article by Patrick Vuleta

[Fat Dog]

Ive said it before and ill say it again, democracy simply doesnt work i went to vietnam last month, signed into steam, and bought myself a copy of manhunt.

[TRB]

You'll be able to buy the R 18+ stuff in non-state territories, like the ACT regardless of what the states decide if the federal laws takes effect.

[RSOblivion]

As if the statutes apply to people outside of government employ anyway...

[Marius]

You'll be able to buy the R 18+ stuff in non-state territories, like the ACT regardless of what the states decide if the federal laws takes effect.

Like porn!

Yeah but it's not exactly ideal, especially when you consider what will happen for Australia-wide digital download services, which might not use 'ACT rules'.

[IvanTSR]

Funded lobby groups campaigning against the bill at every stage makes this date even more optimistic. Politicians listen to lobby groups because they’re organised. But when citizens show their voices together, minority groups are shown for what they are—minorities.

This is really true. There's a saying which goes to the effect of 'decisions are made by the people who show up'. This is really true of lobby groups, in this case in particular the Australian Christian Lobby - which for reasons you can only hypothesise (which I will do below) have actively lobbied against this bill.

If you want to get an idea of where they're coming from though look at their website and particularly at the bio of the MD of the ACL, Jim Wallace.

Here is an exerpt from the ACL website

Jim Wallace AM
Managing Director

Jim Wallace AM is the Managing Director of the Australian Christian Lobby.

Mr Wallace left the Army as a Brigadier in late 2000 after a 32-year career which included command of the SAS Regiment, Special Forces, and the Army’s mechanised Brigade of 3,000 personnel and most of the Army’s fighting vehicles. He is a graduate of Duntroon in Canberra, the British Army Staff College and the Australian College of Defence and Strategic Studies.

Mr Wallace served as a UN Observer in the Golan Heights and Lebanon with the United Nations Truce Supervision Organisation.

In 1984 he was made a Member of the Order of Australia for his services to counter-terrorism. He has been a Visiting Fellow at the Australian Defence Studies Centre and has served on the Council of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute and the National Consultative Committee for International Security Issues.

This is the bloke who runs ACL. From his life experience you can probably understand why he has a particular aversion to people choosing to participate in unnecessarily interactive violence.

Looking at his CV you can understand why politicians tend to take the organisation he heads up pretty seriously.

The thing is though in this policy issue there are perfectly legitimate arguments for/against R18+ rating for games (for the record I am in clear favour).

Against - is interactive graphic violence something we want to condone as a society? It is in some way different from passive consumption of media and that scares some. What about the children (my personal fav, and the one which hands down gets the most traction with pollies).

For - discerning adults should have to the liberty choose what media they consume, if it offends you, abstain. What about the children? This will also regulate explicit interactive material instead of keeping it to unregulated and copyright infringing downloads from the web where parents are kept out of the loop and usually wouldn't have a clue what their children are doing.

The problem is that often the people who turn up with the for argument get drawn into invalidating the arguments of the against crowd because they assume they rest on some misguided, unintelligent manifestation of Christianity. They approach the pollies with this attitude and come off looking a little daft and bigoted (do not let the irony escape you).

Just some observations.

[PalZer0]

The pollies won't listen to ordinary plebs like us because we don't have money to throw at them. That's why lobby groups like the ACL are so successful.

[IvanTSR]

The pollies won't listen to ordinary plebs like us because we don't have money to throw at them. That's why lobby groups like the ACL are so successful.

It's not about money mate - not with bills like this. It's about voting and maths.

[kenny6]

how can you help... you cant just get all your games on ebay, use a proxy or get them from a cd-key website. done

[ChainsawMcP]

You'll be able to buy the R 18+ stuff in non-state territories, like the ACT regardless of what the states decide if the federal laws takes effect.

That's not quite right - The ACT used to be governed by the Feds - but we are independent now and have been since 1989... much to our regret.

The ACT would still need to bring in it's own law to allow the R18 games (the same way the states would need to) - but we are pretty much already assured it will happen.

[Drakand]

Great article, thanks for the details, i'll be keeping this favourited so I can f/u once details are known!

Love the new DP btw

[Marius]

DP?

[Drakand]

DP?

you're new Display Pic, sorry, red head holding the hear, changed from xmas hat Leliana.

[PalZer0]

It's not about money mate - not with bills like this. It's about voting and maths.

Democracy has always been about how much money you have. That's why the Occupy movement was formed in the first place.

We need a lobby group for Aussie gamers to make a difference.

[Marius]

That's interestingly why lobby groups work, because many people give up before starting and blame it on money/influence/Wall Street.

Most lobby groups aren't that funded - they don't light cigars with $100 notes. They have a bunch of people paid at $50K a year to do stuff like make phonecalls all the time. For most professional lobbyists, it's not a highly paid or even glamorous position.

And thanks, Drakand. It's Typhoid Mary.