It's been bruited about for a while, but today news came of the Australian government plans for censoring game content for the entire country. It reached me through NPIRL and the SL forums, so word is spreading quickly.
Gamespot:
"Australian gamers are probably well aware of their country's strict games classification system, with the lack of an R18+ rating meaning any title not fitting under the MA15+ rating is automatically banned from sale down under. This means it is illegal to sell a game that has been refused classification in Australia, and while this has mainly been focused on retail stores, it looks like the federal government is planning to extend its reach by blocking Web sites that host or sell banned games. "
From the Sydney Morning Herald:
"The Federal Government has now set its sights on gamers, promising to use its internet censorship regime to block websites hosting and selling video games that are not suitable for 15 year olds.
Separately, the Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy, has been nominated by the British ISP industry for its annual "internet villain" award, competing alongside the European Parliament and French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Australia is the only developed country without an R18+ classification for games, meaning any titles that do not meet the MA15+ standard - such as those with excessive violence or sexual content - are simply banned from sale by the Classification Board, unless they are modified to remove the offending content.
So far, this has only applied to local bricks-and-mortar stores selling physical copies of games, but a spokesman for Senator Conroy confirmed that under the filtering plan, it will be extended to downloadable games, flash-based web games and sites which sell physical copies of games that do not meet the MA15+ standard.
This means that even Australians who are aged above 15 and want to obtain the adult-level games online will be unable to do so. . It will undoubtedly raise the ire of gamers, the average age of which is 30 in Australia, according to research commissioned by the Interactive Entertainment Association of Australia."
Comment on Gamespot: "pfft, if they knew anything about the internet they'd know ppl will just use proxy sites."
I hope it's easy to circumvent but that doesn't solve the issue.
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