Australia approves final R18+ gaming guidelines

Despite stories suggesting that a change to the Australian ratings system may be as far as two years away, the Federal Minister for Home Affairs has today announced that each Australian state and territory has signed off on the final guidelines required for the introduction of an adult R18+ classification Down Under.

It should come as no surprise that the guidelines are pretty strict when it comes to violent content.

According to Minister Brendan O'Connor, the major changes made to the draft guidelines have been focussing primarily on violence, as well as coarse language - with strong violence and "aggressive strong language" now ruled out of MA15+ games.

In what may be a response to New South Wales Attorney General Greg Smith's recent outburst about video games being filled with sex and violence, Minister O'Connor explained simply that sexual violence is currently Refused Classification - effectively banned - and that ruling will not change when an R18+ is introduced.

Unfortunately, while the committee did reach the desired outcome for gamers, they didn't do it in time for this year's final parliamentary session, meaning the R18+ legislation will have to wait until February 2012 to be discussed.

Speaking to Gamespot, O'Connor explains:

I am confident we'll have R18+ passed in the first few months of next year. I know some people are concerned about the time but it's been going on for a decade, and we've made great progress. Everyone is working towards legislating for change.

The new guidelines are based on the amended draft published earlier this year (available here as PDF) include the following changes for the MA15+ rating:

• Strong and realistic violence should not be very frequent
• Sexual activity must not be tied to rewards or incentives
• Interactive drug use that is detailed and realistic is not permitted
• Nudity must not be related to incentives and rewards

The all-new R18+ Restricted rating will cover games considered to be "high" in impact:

Final Guidelines - MA15+ Restricted

THEMES:
The treatment of strong themes should be justified by the context.

VIOLENCE:
Violence should be justified by the context.
Strong and realistic violence should not be frequent or unduly repetitive.
Sexual violence may be implied, if non-interactive and justified by the content.

SEX:
Sexual activity may be implied.
Sexual activity must not be related to incentives or rewards.

LANGUAGE:
Strong coarse language may be used.
Aggressive or strong coarse language should be infrequent, and not exploitative or offensive.

DRUG USE:
Drug use should be justified by the context.
Drug use related to incentives or rewards is not permitted.
Interactive illicit or prescribed drug use is not permitted.

NUDITY:
Nudity should be justified by the context.
Nudity must not be related to incentives or rewards.

Final Guidelines - R18+ Restricted

THEMES:
There are virtually no restrictions on the treatment of themes.

VIOLENCE:
Violence is permitted. High impact violence that is, in context, frequently gratuitous, exploitative and offensive to a reasonable adult will not be permitted.
Sexual violence may be implied, if non-interactive and justified by context.

SEX:
Sexual activity may be realistically simulated. The general rule is "simulation, yes—the real thing, no".

LANGUAGE:
There are virtually no restrictions on language.

DRUG USE:
Drug use is permitted
Drug use related to incentives and rewards is not permitted.

NUDITY:
Nudity is permitted.

Once an R18+ is introduced by parliament and approved, the Australian Classification Board can start labelling games as R18+ immediately - and, O'Connor says - will have the ability to re-classify any troublesome games that currently bear an MA15+ sticker.

This goes against the traditional rules of the Classification Board, which normally cannot consider a re-classification until 24 months after submission.

It's up to the Classification Board whether they want to re-classify those games. I think people know that there are some games now that are rated MA15+ that should be re-classified, but I am not going to name any.

We're not going to name any either, but there are games which even local publishers have commented "really shouldn't" have been granted MA15+ in the first place, so it's possible the companies will present selected games for reconsideration also.

It's been a long and bumpy ride since the matter was first brought up in 2002, but it seems there may - finally - be a light at the end of the tunnel. Even if an adult rating isn't here for a while (February 2013 is still optimistic), today's government is taking huge steps to bring it to us.

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8 Responses to “Australia approves final R18+ gaming guidelines”

1. Australia Starts On It’s R-Ratings : Just Push Start says:

   November 4, 2011 at 3:18 am

   [...] This man wants change. No no, get your hands out of your pockets, he’s not homeless, I mean he wants things to change. [...]

   Reply
2. GamePron News Season 2, Episode 38 « GamePron says:

   November 4, 2011 at 5:59 am

   [...] is full of all sorts of exciting bits and pieces. We look at Australia’s huge step towards an R18+ adult rating for video games, in the same week as we get a glimpse of Grand Theft Auto V, which is officially in [...]

   Reply
3. In Other News – 04 November 2011 Weekend Edition | Lazygamer .:: Console and PC Gaming News ::. | Other News says:

   November 4, 2011 at 7:04 am

   [...] later in November Less than 20% of players have finished the COD: Black Ops single-player campaign Australia approves final R18 guidelines for gamesStuffGuy makes wooden Final Fantasy swords – In jail Top five (Evil) Good guys in gaming [...]

   Reply
4. peter says:

   November 4, 2011 at 8:05 pm

   About time things started moving along.

   Reply
5. Mike - Lime Rocket says:

   November 4, 2011 at 10:17 pm

   Wow. I had given up on seeing this happen in my lifetime.

   Reply
6. J says:

   November 6, 2011 at 10:09 pm

   About time Australia harden’d the fuck up and joined the rest of the world.

   Reply
7. James says:

   November 9, 2011 at 1:09 pm

   I’m happy, yet still hate my country so much for having restrictions at all, it’s an 18+ Game, if I’m allowed to drink, fuck, smoke, vote, work and live as an adult in this society, then why can’t I entertain myself with whatever video games I choose? Fuck you Australia, this is ten years late and not what I wanted. Why do I have to do these things in real life if I want to experience them? I just want to do it in a video game…

   Reply
8. Syndicate considered “too violent” for Australia « GamePron says:

   December 20, 2011 at 12:46 pm

   [...] recently approved guidelines for an R18+ adult rating, but until those are written into law, the highest rating for video games [...]

   Reply

Article Details

• published: November 3rd, 2011
• by: Jessica Citizen
• in: Australia, Australian R18+ Debate, Brendan O'Connor, censorship, Classification Board, r18+, Refused Classification
• comments: 8

Author Bio:

I like video games, fishing, Depeche Mode, long walks on the beach, writing discussion papers and cups of tea. Not necessarily in that order.

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