Australian R18+ Rating Proposed by Government

We’ve not heard much from Australia’s R18+ rating debate for a while, but there’s finally some progress to report. The Australian government has released a draft proposal setting out the guidelines for reform, with a full R18+ rating being put forward.

This new rating will allow “virtually no restrictions on the treatment of themes” and “violence is permitted except where it offends against the standards of morality, decency and propriety generally accepted by reasonable adults to the extent that it should not be classified.”

Along with this, the report proposes that “sexual activity may be realistically simulated” and that “sexual violence may be implied, if justified by context.” All of this brings videogames inline with the country’s rules on movies.

Australia has been behind much of the “western” world when it comes to ratings, with the country only having up to a MA 15+ rating. Games have been banned from the country due to the lack adult rating, but in most cases it means that violent games (Dead Rising, for example) are given the MA 15+ rating with small omissions of content/detail. This means 15 year-old kids get to see more graphic content anyway.

The man behind the move, home minister, Brendan O’Connor, said that the government wants to “provide better guidance for parents and remove unsuitable material from children and teenagers. The introduction of an R18+ classification will help achieve that and will also bring Australia into line with comparable nations.”

The government will decide in July if the proposals are to be taken on-board. You can read the report .pdf here.

via: Joystiq