Australian government seeks public opinion regarding R rating

Last month the Australian Home Affairs Ministry declared that the country’s attorneys-general would mull over whether games with an R rating should be allowed in the country or not. The attorneys-general met recently in Barossa Valley in South Australia and reached a consensus that the final decision can only be reached after taking into account the public opinion.

Australia doesn’t have a R rating for video games which means that adult-oriented games can’t be released there. The highest rating assigned to games is MA, which is given to games deemed fit for sale to only people 15 and above. Any games that exceed the MA rating are denied a release in Australia. “There is a degree of unease, we think, in the public about just how much violence, especially younger people, should have access to. That’s why we agreed today that we would conduct a full consultation with the community so that we all know better whether or not it is a sensible thing to introduce an adult classification for games.” said Bob Debus, Federal Home Affairs Minister of Australia , told ABC News.

He added that the discussion over an R rating was necessary as a legal ban on adult oriented games encourages black marketing of such games.

Read [ABC]