The video gaming industry in Australia has recently described some calls for the introduction of tougher rules for the sector as a temporary measure.
In the middle of the week, the country’s Arts Minister Paul Fletcher officially revealed that the Government of Prime Minister Scott Morrison plans to implement further restrictions for screen content that depicts suicide, violence against women or tends to sexualise underage individuals.
However, some representatives of the Australian video gaming industry do not seem very thrilled with the announced changes. Ron Curry from the Interactive Games and Entertainment Association (IGEA) has described the changes proposed by the Morrison Government as “piecemeal”, saying that the entire classification system needs to be thoroughly examined and changed. Mr Curry explained that the authorities first need to make “a big step backwards” so that the entire system is reviewed and they make sure that it works the way it is supposed to before imposing stricter rules on the video gaming sector.
The country’s Arts Minister, however, turned down criticism of the classification proposal. Mr Fletcher shared that the Government would not apologise for going forward with the aforementioned measures, as stricter control is necessary in the video gaming industry in order to tackle the risks for both children and adult users and keep them protected against gaming-related harm.
New Screen Content Rules Aimed at Protecting Children from Video Gaming-Linked Harm
As part of the proposed changes for the local video gaming industry, the Australian Government noted that gambling-like games that feature so-called “loot boxes” and other in-game purchases would also be subject to a minimum classification rating.
Minister Fletcher has shared that the normalisation of gambling among Australian children has been a major concern of the country’s Government, so it was willing to make sure that parents were aware that certain video games they want to purchase for their children could contain loot boxes, and they could be dangerous.
Loot boxes are a type of special gaming futures that are usually associated with something like a mystery box that contains a variety of randomly selected in-game items, such as special costumes or weapons that can help the development of the player’s character in a video game. However, loot boxes have been largely criticised, with campaigners describing them as a form of gambling and some research having even linked them to problem gambling.
For the time being, both films and computer games are required to be classified under a special scheme managed by the Commonwealth, state and territory governments before being allowed to be released to the public. The classification scheme of Australia was rolled out in 1995, so it was not designed to meet the needs of online gaming or streaming services that appeared at a later time.
A 2019 review of the system is still expected to be officially released and some MPs have already started calling for some action. Michelle Rowland from the Labour Party has noted that the work on the planned upgrade of the scheme had fallen behind under the Governor of Prime Minister Scott Morrison, so it was high time for it to be completed.
- Author
Daniel Williams
