Back in June of this year, every state and territory in Australia finally agreed to end their highly controversial and just downright old-fashioned view on video games by agreeing to a bill that would allow to selling of “adult video games” (in other words, violent games that the Australian government considered dangerous due to its content; games like Left 4 Dead 2 had to have much of the gore present in the game removed before it was allowed in Australia, making for a rather stripped down version).
However, despite this bill being passed by all territories and states, the bill had not been enforced by any of them. That is, until now.
The ACT (Australian Capital Territory) has become the first part of Australia to actually pass the law under its own jurisdiction, officially allowing adults to purchase games with the “18+ Restricted” classification. Attorney General Simon Corbell basically summed up the R18+ classification when he said, “This is about making sure that adults are able to view and play and read what they wish as long as it does not do harm to others. An R18+ classification ensures that adults can access adult material in computer game form, but at the same time protecting children under the age of 18 from that material.” Which is essentially what should have happened years ago, but at least they’re finally getting around to it.
If this recent decision by the Australian Capital Territory is any indication as to other territories’ intentions, then we might begin seeing other parts of the country officially enforcing the new law in the near future which is something that I’m sure many Australian gamers are anticipating.
The whole situation just seems silly to me. Australia should have sorted this out years ago; it just seems so bizarre that a country like Australia is still bickering over this issue.
