14 DAY TRIAL // The federal government of Australia seems to be on the verge of implementing a plan to block the access to all the web sites that it deems as hosting gaming content edgier than the guidelines for its MA – 15+ rating. The policy is not aimed only at kids but at all Internet users.
This basically means that people will not be able to access Flash games, downloadable games and those sites which are selling, in online stores, those videogames banned from sales on the territory of Australia.
A spokesman for the Minister of Communications, Stephen Conroy, has stated that the policy is designed to make sure that the content which cannot physically move into the country is also kept out of the hands of its citizens on the Internet.
Those who lobby for the freedom of information have quickly moved to criticize the plan. Colin Jacobs, who is a representative of Electronic Frontiers Australia, declared that “This is confirmation that the scope of the mandatory censorship scheme will keep on creeping. Far from being the ultimate weapon against child abuse, it now will officially censor content deemed too controversial for a 15-year-old. In a free country like ours, do we really need the government to step in and save us from racy web games?”
It's also interesting to note that, traditionally, rating boards cannot and do not rate the online interactions for videogames, meaning that going online with, say, Grand Theft Auto IV on Xbox Live might lead to the sort of MA – 15+ experience that the Australian government does not want its citizens to encounter. MMOs like World of Warcraft could also be affected because of the fact that some of the content is not rated, as it is user created. It will be interested to see whether the plan of the government will go ahead in its current form.