Ask an average Australian about censorship and chances are they'll tell you it's a bad thing.

And yet when it comes to video games, we have one of the toughest regimes in the world in terms of dictating exactly what is available to our adult population. On one hand Australia is an oasis of game development, with a thriving, highly skilled industry generating hundreds of millions of dollars of valuable export revenue. On the other hand Australia's lack of an R18+ classification means that some of the world's most important video games are effectively banned from appearing down under at all.

This unfortunate paradox is centred on the horrifically outdated view that games are just for kids. The reality is that video games are an evolving entertainment medium of truly bewildering variety, that covers at least as many ages and tastes as traditional entertainment like movies, books and television. It is a great shame that some among our lawmakers have such a narrow view of the work carried out by the 2000 people employed in and around the video game industry in Australia.

The most recent game to be refused classification in Australia illustrates just how absurd the situation has become. Fallout 3 is a highly anticipated instalment in a series that began 10 years ago. Many adult gamers were eagerly awaiting the title's release, only to be thwarted by our archaic classification system. The farcical discussion of this issue on ABC television's recent Q&A program shows how little effort some policy makers have made to understand the current system, let alone get across the arguments for reform.

Let's take a look at the Fallout example specifically. Anyone who has played a video game will probably understand the concept of picking up a 'health pack' thereby enabling you to carry on in the game. In Fallout 3, set as it is in a post-apocalyptic world, this act takes the form of an injection. This depiction is in keeping with the artistic setting and expectations of the adult audience. As a game developer I respect the view that the injections in Fallout 3 might constitute an 'adult concept'. What I cannot respect is the implied assertion that I should be not be able to make or play games that incorporate such concepts. This is a massive violation of my creative and artistic rights, and of my basic rights and freedoms as an adult living in a country like Australia.

If the publishers of Fallout 3 want to release their game in Australia, it will need to be reworked just for the Australian market. Because of the small size of our market, this is usually not worth the expense. So not only are Australian gamers being deprived of several titles per year, they are literally being pushed towards piracy, which hurts every part of our industry.

The goals of the Australian National Classification Code bear repeating for these purposes:



Classification decisions are to give effect, as far as possible, to the following principles;

(a) Adults should be able to read, hear and see what they want;

(b) Minors should be protected from material likely to harm or disturb them;

(c) Everyone should be protected from exposure to unsolicited material that they find offensive...

Dissenting South Australian Attorney-General Michael Atkinson interprets the above code such that (b) overrules (a). This is how he put it in a recent letter to a constituent reprinted on the Australian Gamer website:

"To my mind, increasing the volume of inappropriate material available (which includes even more extreme content) will just mean even more unsuitable material is on sale."

In other words, adding an R18+ certification will put more games unsuitable for minors on the shelves and that's simply more important than your rights as an adult. That's quite a leap in logic, and a frankly outrageous position to take in my view. Can you imagine the same the same justification being used for any medium other than video games?

Part of the problem is that Michael Atkinson believes, against the government's own evidence, that games are unusually harmful to children, as compared with films, television, and books. What's more, he seems not to believe that there exists the facility to stop children from playing adult games. All this despite the fact that we already have a statutory age restriction for retail (MA15+), and that games consoles have easy to use and effective parental lockout systems.

Australia's absence of an R18+ category, and the financial imperative of getting a game onto store shelves in a timely manner, means that many games intended for adult audiences (and rated 18+ in other countries) are inappropriately shoehorned into the existing MA15+ category in Australia. Far from protecting minors from adult content, our uniquely incomplete classification system has allowed them, in many cases, to legally purchase and access such content. A consistent classification system would better serve to protect the rights of children, as well as ensuring those of adults are not infringed.

As game developers, we are trying to make games that provide entertainment to players of all ages. Video games are not going to turn your children into criminals. They are, in fact, the modern face of the entertainment industry, and something that we in Australia are very good at producing.

The focus of this debate should be upon how the Australian classification system can best give adults the information they need to chose video game content for themselves and their children, without burdening our country with unjustified and draconian censorship to the amusement and pity of the rest of the world.

We can start with the immediate implementation of an R18+ games rating.

Tom Crago is the chief executive of Tantalus and president of the Game Developers' Association of Australia (GDAA).