You might think that the departure of long-serving South Australian Attorney General, Michael Atkinson, would pave a clear path for establishing the long-sought R-rating for games in Australia, right?
Well, it might not exactly be as simple as all that.
As you’re probably aware, Australia doesn’t have an 18+ rating for video games (though it does for other types of media such as films and publications). It’s not a stretch to see why. At the time the legislation was applied to video games, such games were the province of the young, and it is only recently that they’ve grown up, right?
Wrong.
From their inception, video games (particularly computer games) were played by all ages.
If you haven’t already read about it, you’ll find that there are far more dire problems with the proposal than just the blocking of online games/games-sales or the possibility of blocking Second Life.
Now if that doesn’t get you thinking about hustling over to talk to your local MP or Senator, I’m not sure quite what will.
Darn straight they could. Second Life could be on the hitlist, the more so because of the Zindra continent for adult content.
While Second Life clearly isn’t a game, I doubt that anyone involved in the process really cares about that trivial little detail. We’re all pretty sure this isn’t really about games anyway, right? After all, the current list also censors religion, political opinion, veterinarians, and school lunches.