GTA pushes the R18 issue in Australia
Wouldn’t you find it a bit odd that a game gets MA15+ in Australia, yet that same game gets R18 here?
Well, it’s happening (and not for the first time). Australia gets editions of Grand Theft Auto that are cut so then they could get past OFLC ratings. While Australia has an R18, it is strictly limited to films only. Any game that gets R18 is banned. The maximum game rating is MA15+.
A cut version of GTA IV is making it’s way there, and to the shock of Kiwi fans, we’re getting it too, despite us having an R18 rating and never having a cut version of the franchise before. However, the interesting thing here is that the same game is getting our maximum rating, R18, for violence and offensive language.
First thought is that Australia is being quite conservative in banning games that are R18. But isn’t it a bit liberal if a 15 year old can get the same violence, language and sex? Kotaku got a copy of the Australian OFLC report to find that not a lot has been cut, except since that article some reviews have sprouted up where it appears that sex is only displayed as a bouncing car in our version.
This is the country where porn is banned for sale or hire in all but two states. Isn’t it a bit odd that adults can’t see a bit of sex, yet killing people by either blowing them up or stabbing them (or with just a bit of fistycuffs), being able to pick up hookers and solicit sex (A/NZ version only showing a bouncing car), watching people snort cocain and the like, you have to be 15 years to enter? It seems that the intention of banning R18 games had the directly opposite effect to what it was trying to achieve.
Very recently (last month), there has been a push to introduce an R18 rating for video games. Details here. It has been met with some opposition, with a “think of the children” argument. Why don’t the ministers think that this is a Restricted classification? That’s what the R stands for, it is Restricted to persons 18 years and over. Children are not supposed to get it, and if they are, maybe they should be looking at enforcing the law as well.
I’ve started to see it here, I was in KMart when a parent was refused sale because she was buying the R18 game for her seemingly 10 year old child. Just give big warnings that they’ll be fined, and give them some leaflets and they might start refusing access. This seems to be a problem that higher-ups don’t get, you have a ratings system that isn’t being enforced. So don’t ban it, start enforcing what you’ve already got!
If Australia did have an R18 rating, then 15 year olds won’t be having legal access to this game just like they aren’t in every other country. The thought that not having R18 prevents them from seeing content that is in GTA is a farce, they are pretty much seeing brutal stuff as is evident of the R18 rating for the exact same game here in New Zealand. Archaic views that games are for children is affecting what your children do see, and maybe that “think of the children” argument should be used to actually restrict these games to adults, and not punish them.
Yeah, I think this is a hilarious state of affairs, in New Zealand and moreso in Australia. I honestly can’t understand the opponents to the R rating for games being brought in over the Tasman. “Think of the children” is *exactly* what the supporters are trying to do!
In New Zealand, I’ve found that KMart incident is extremely rare. The fact is, although it is against the law, most parents don’t care and most checkout operators don’t think it is wrong because they’re selling it to the parent (even though the kid is right there).
I worked at The Warehouse for just over 4 years and I slipped one of those Internal Affairs brochures into the bags of parents who I knew were buying R rated games for their children. I couldn’t prove they were buying for their kids most of the time and I verbally made them agree that they knew it was a restricted game before I sold it to them.
I met the Chief Censor (Bill Hastings) at a community meeting a few years ago not long after Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was released in New Zealand. The shear number of parents and community members spouting off that it is harming our children was absolutely astounding! Bill Hastings was very quick to point out that any person supplying this game to a minor is doing so against the law no matter if they are a parent or a friend.
The Internal Affairs brochure I used to slip into people’s bags details the penalties for supplying restricted material to minors and that parents are not exempt. 3-months jail time and a substantial fine is the maximum penalty but the Department of Internal Affairs hasn’t prosecuted anyone in years.
When I spoke to the Chief Censor, he mentioned that it was something around the issue of “what I let my children do in my home is my business” that meant it was very difficult to enforce the law along with the fact that it is very hard to prove what goes on in someone’s home. It isn’t his job or his department’s role to enforce the restriction of supply of material to minors, that is the job of Internal Affairs. However, they are just pansies. They should grow some balls and put the law through its paces.
I often try to bring up the question of “would you let your children watch less interactive R18 material such as hardcore pornography?”, parents always answer that with “no! But porn is different”. I still haven’t found a decent come back to that except to laugh. All I can say is “you’re saying something that is natural and necessary for the survival of our species being displayed is far worse than immersing your impressionable children in a world of violence, guns and mass-murder!?”. That mentality astounds me no end.
TL;DR: Internal Affairs should start finding a way of prosecuting people.