No R18+ rating in Australia for at least a couple of years

"Despite the fact that Brendan O'Connor claimed we would have an R18+ rating in place before the end of 2011, David Emery, the Manager of Applications at the ification Branch has claimed that we may be waiting at least two years before we see R18+ games on shelves.

At the Politics of Play debate last night, Emery went into detail on the process required to legislate an adult rating for games, a process so burdened with bureaucracy it led Dr Jeff Brand to claim it was as strong an argument as any for government being removed from dealing with issues of ification.

"There is legislation that's been put to Parliament about the changes," said David Emery. "What happens next is a long process again — it's probably going to take another couple of years before you're actually going to get an R18 that you can apply for, like a conventional ification that you have today.

"It's got to go to Parliament, then there's changes that have to be made subsequent to that — to the ification Act — to allow for people who have had a game that has gone to the ification board and been refused ification to then be resubmitted in some form. There also needs to changes made to each state and territories ification act, that needs to go through the exact same process that I've just described, except on a state level.

"All of those things take ages," he continued. "There are lots of delays. The answer is that it'll probably be another couple of years before we'll be able to accept an application for an R18 game."

After the last SCAG meeting, Brendan O'Connor claimed that he had hoped to have an R18+ rating in place by the end of the year, although it is possible he was discussing the revised guidelines, which were discussed at the SCAG Meeting.

But according to Emery said process may take at least two years, and with the entire ****fication Board on the verge of what could be seismic shift in its responsibilities, with the ****fication Review still in process, this success of this bill could be dependent on a number of outside factors.

Australia will have an R18+ rating — but we may just have to wait a little longer than expected."

http://www.kotaku.com.au/2011/10/we-could-be-waiting-at-least-two-years-for-an-r18-rating/

in the meantime many games will get banned [and cut] and many others will...

btw, I had to remove a the first part of ification because the forums don't allow it. You know what that word is.

People act like every single game gets banned, over the years it's only been a handful of the more extreme games and a bunch more that were accepted with a second application (unmodified) or with minor modifications. It's only an issue when it happens to something like Mortal Kombat, which is a pretty rare thing.

The real problem is the underlying issues with trying to get a chgange like this made because there's just so much stoping it from happening, despite the overwhelming support.

And before any Americans try to insult or take pity on us, consider that our regular TV and our vocabulary is akin to your cable stations. We might censor some games but we're much more liberal in other areas, especially TV.

People act like every single game gets banned, over the years it's only been a handful of the more extreme games and a bunch more that were accepted with a second application (unmodified) or with minor modifications. It's only an issue when it happens to something like Mortal Kombat, which is a pretty rare thing.

The real problem is the underlying issues with trying to get a chgange like this made because there's just so much stoping it from happening, despite the overwhelming support.

And before any Americans try to insult or take pity on us, consider that our regular TV and our vocabulary is akin to your cable stations. We might censor some games but we're much more liberal in other areas, especially TV.

DigitalExile

American Cable is more varied and stronger than your regular TV though, you just have to pay extra.

Anyhow I'm Canadian but we use the same ESRB system [because it works].

"Handful of games"...35 since 1994 were banned or cut prior to release in Australia...and counting. That's not even counting all the Dead Space's and Dead Island's that get an 17 in North America and an 18 in every other country [or are cut, banned, or unreleased in Germany] and a 15 down under

I find the idea of a government telling adults what they can and cannot partake in (so long as it respects others laws; i.e. child porn and snuff films would not count) and banning certain media to be abhorrent. Australia is becoming an extensively ultra-conservative nation, and it is kind of disconcerting.foxhound_fox

HUH? Even the ****fication guy thinks this will go ahead, just due to government beuracracy as in all countries, it could take a long time. Australia is less conservative than the United States, probably abit ahead of Canada and the UK though.

And for the record the Australian Constitution does not mention Free Speech and this is why Internet and Video Game censorship goes ahead more than anywhere else in the western world.

I find the idea of a government telling adults what they can and cannot partake in (so long as it respects others laws; i.e. child porn and snuff films would not count) and banning certain media to be abhorrent. Australia is becoming an extensively ultra-conservative nation, and it is kind of disconcerting.foxhound_fox

This is a gross exaggeration and shows a fundamental misunderstanding and ignorance of Australia's mentality. We are actually a very liberal nation. Vastly more liberal and less fundamentalist than the US, though we do have some unfortunate quirks, games classification being one of those.

But make no mistake, we get all the films, all the literature and all the freedom of speech that Canada does. Also, it's not actually illegal to own games that get banned. It's only illegal to sell them. For example, Manhunt was banned, but I faced no problems whatsoever in importing it from the UK.

That's amazingly pathetic. But seriously, that is the problem with a government that gets so big it has the power to be the moral authority on things as trivial as a video game purchase.

[QUOTE="foxhound_fox"]I find the idea of a government telling adults what they can and cannot partake in (so long as it respects others laws; i.e. child porn and snuff films would not count) and banning certain media to be abhorrent. Australia is becoming an extensively ultra-conservative nation, and it is kind of disconcerting.streak000

This is a gross exaggeration and shows a fundamental misunderstanding and ignorance of Australia's mentality. We are actually a very liberal nation. Vastly more liberal and less fundamentalist than the US, though we do have some unfortunate quirks, games classification being one of those.

But make no mistake, we get all the films, all the literature and all the freedom of speech that Canada does. Also, it's not actually illegal to own games that get banned. It's only illegal to sell them. For example, Manhunt was banned, but I faced no problems whatsoever in importing it from the UK.

Video game classification in Australia feels like it somehow slipped through the cracks and only recently became an issue. I'm not even sure why we didn't have an R18+ rating to begin with. when they began classifying video games didn't they basically just copy and paste the film classification criteria?