After a long battle and plenty of talk and no action, it looks like gamers across Australia can finally rejoice: we're going to get an R18+ rating for video games.
Tonight, on June 18th 2012, the Australian Minister for Home Affairs, Jason Clare, officially announced that an R18+ category for video games will be introduced.
On the glorious day of January 2013, our classification system for games will finally be overhauled at State and Federal levels.
"The R 18+ category will inform consumers, parents and retailers about which games are not suitable for minors to play, and will prevent minors from purchasing unsuitable material," Mr Clare said.
"The reforms also mean that adults are able to choose what games they play within the bounds of the law."
"These are important reforms over 10 years in the making."
As the official press release and Mr Clare notes, the introduction of an R18+ category for video games has been the subject of "extensive public consultation" for a number of years. In 2009, this prompted the Attorney-General's Department to release a discussion paper on the introduction of an R 18+ classification category for video games.
Out of the 58,437 submissions received in response, it was found that 98 per cent of the submissions supported the introduction of an R 18+ category. Australia had spoken.
After three more years, it looks like things are finally moving forward and Australia can now shed its reputation as the only Western country without an adult rating for video games.
However, like Player Attack notes, even though at a federal level the legislation has passed, each individual state and territory of Australia now has to figure out how it's going to implement the changes.
Whatever the case, Australia will have an official adult rating for video games, effective January 1, 2013.
Check out the full press release on the government's Home Affairs website.
Source: Atomic MPC
By Nathan Misa- Writer Bio