Australian Catholic Bishops Back R18+ Rating

08 May 2010 at 01:54:05 by Peter Parrish

The Australian Attorney-General's Department has posted online the preliminary results of their recent public consultation on the topic of adopting an R18+ rating for videogames.

Almost 60,000 submissions were received from individuals, community groups and industry lobbyists, with an overwhelming 98.2% in favour of the Australian National Classification Scheme introducing an R18+ rating.

One seemingly unlikely backer is the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference.

Though not exactly fans of R18+ games, the Bishops state that "[Our] preferred position is that R18+ material would not be available in Australia. However, as material is currently available despite its illegality, it would be preferable to introduce an R18+ classification category for computer games."

As these are just preliminary findings, however, there's no sign of the law changing just yet.

"It is not just the weight of numbers that need to be considered. It is also the strength of the arguments on each side. That is why Ministers today agreed that further work needs to be done before a decision can be made," said the Minister for Home Affairs Brendan O’Connor.

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