Today I read yet more insipid comments on the ongoing, nay endless, debate regarding the introduction of an R18+ adults only classification for video games which, unlike many other nations we do not currently have.
As a gamer, this total lack of consideration for adult gamers, as well as the idiocy behind the statements against a new adult rating are a constant source of irritation.
Below is the letter I have just sent to Victorian Attorney General Robert Clark. It is presented unedited and in entirety.
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Dear Mr Clark
In regards to your recent comment that you fear an R18+ classification for games would lead to an influx of titles filled with gratuitous and frequent violence, I offer a few remarks. I implore you to read this email and to consider it’s message carefully.
Firstly, I believe your recent comments to show a fundamental lack of understanding the curtailments of any classification as the addition of a restrictive, adults only rating does not equate a no-holds-barred free for all of depravity as is made obvious by the strict limitations of our own R18+ film classification which permits neither hardcore sex nor distasteful violence.
It also demonstrates a lack of research. A simple investigation into any number of other western countries including the US, the UK, much of Europe under their PEGI system and indeed even our close neighbour New Zealand would find they ALL have a restricted, and most importantly in many cases enforced, adults only certification level for video games.
However none of them, report a sudden surge in tawdry sexual games, pornographic games or gratuitously violent games (the three complaints most frequently used by those against an adult classification in Australia) – largely due to those aspects not being included in any R rating system.
Did the inclusion of an R18+ rating for films suddenly mean this rating was overrun with gratuitous violence and hardcore sex? No. Of course not. Violent films did of course emerge to cater for the demographic of this very rating: ADULTS. That’s the idea, to cater for adults.
Which leads me to my most charged point of the correspondence: despite the repeated claim by many opponents that an adult rating would cause unsuitable games to find their way to minors, by refusing to instigate an adult rating for games you are, quite literally handing games of an adult nature to children.
Games like the Call Of Duty series, aimed at an adult audience and given an adult certification overseas are branded MA15+ here and bought quite obliviously by parents for children as young as nine. And if you don’t believe that, please, get an Xbox 360 and spend ten minutes in a COD game lobby: you will be met by a foul-mouthed conglomerate of prepubescent voices without fail.
To a parent, even a well meaning one, the idea of a game for 15 year olds is not necessarily out of the scope of suitability for a 13 year old. For the less parentally apt, or for those with particularly mature and well-adjusted children this number slides further downward. However even the most lacklustre of parents will more often than not keep media with a hard R18+ rating out of the hands of a child.
Left 4 Dead, Modern Warfare 2, Gears of War, the Fallout series, Red Dead Redemption, Mortal Kombat, Grand Theft Auto amongst others: all games which should be kept away from children and which in other countries are, with a certain degree of success, by restricting them for sale to adults only. And yet here we are in Australia, where they are branded with a big 15 and handed over the counter to every disinterested or blissfully ignorant parent of a teenaged boy or banned outright due to some perceived threat to our nations youth and the lack of any suitable adult category.
All while politicians argue endlessly amongst themselves and with the public that, somehow, restricting the sale of these games to children by way of an adults only rating would inexplicably allow for greater levels of allegedly objectionable material and for said games have an even easier time of making their way into the hands of children.
Surely the irony cannot be lost on you.
For the record, I am 28 years old and a secondary school teacher in WA. I am educated and well spoken. I vote and pay taxes. I am a gamer. I am also perfectly capable of deciding what is suitable for me to read, to watch, to listen to and to play without government assistance. I enjoy violent games. I enjoy games with adult concepts such as sex and drug abuse. Such is my right, as an adult of sound mind to make these decisions.
I believe firmly in mandatory classification and in the prevention of children from gaining access to media with sexual themes, violence, adult concepts and drug use.
I also believe that this ongoing, perpetual debate over the merits and problems with an R18+ rating for games is doing more harm to the children of this country than you realise, as this afternoon thousands of boys aged 12-17 go home from school, login to Xbox Live and scream heated abuse at other players while unloading clip after clip of virtual ammunition into virtual enemies; revelling in the consequence free violence of a game they should never be granted access to.
Australia needs an R18+ rating for games. Australia needs it to be implemented nation wide. Australia needs it to be enforced. And Australia needs it now, not months or years into the future after more debate and more political grandstanding.
Regards,
Mr C. Hanley
Perth, Western Australia
