It appears that the Australian Government has heard the cries of the hundreds of thousands of Australian gamers and has decided to consult the public in it's review of the current Video Game Classification system, which lacks an R18+ rating. Subsequently, the lack of this rating has resulted in Australia currently holding the World Record for highest number of banned Video Games, and being the only Western nation without such a rating.

Keep in mind that the problem rests not with a Government not wanting to change its rating, as the change has been called to be voted on several times in the past. The problem rests with the requirment for unamious consent to do so and the South Australian Attorney General, Michael Atkinson, who refuses to vote in favour of the change. He's received enough of an internet bashing, and there are plenty of website dedicated to doing just that, so I'll move on.

I believe that the mature rating would actually futher Mr Atkinson's cause; he simply doesn't want mature or violent games in the hands of children. To be fair, I can understand his point - some of the games available today are horrifically violent by any standards. Gamers love to say our gamers are not that violent, but in all honesty some of things that we gamers are exposed to would simply never be allowed in film and are allowed in games almost exclusively because of their virtual nature; they're not real.

By preventing a mature rating from existing within the Australian Ratings system, Michael Atkinson has single handedly - and it is him on his own - allowed games such as Grand Theft Auto 4 to be played by 15 year olds in Australia when the age requirement is 17 in the United States and higher in other countries. If a mature rating was available, I'd like to believe games such as Gears of War would also be rated as R18+ and frankly was surprised that the chainsaw dismemberment scenes were allowed; they're extremely graphic and violent and can occur quite frequently.

I, for one, hope that this public consultation gives a better understanding to the Australian Government of what our public wants and is prepared to accept and that Michael Atkinson doesn't speak on behalf of a majority and is simply presenting his own personal views rather than the people who is supposed to be speaking for.

Should Australia have an R18+ rating for Video Games?