Thursday, February 18, 2010

An R18 Discussion Paper Submission Letter

December last year the long awaited Discussion paper regarding an R18+ classification for games was finally released. With only a week remaining until the cut-off date for submissions, tallying has already begun. Although this is a call for feedback only – not a vote – results so far positive. I submitted one myself of course, but in addition to this I wrote a rather lengthy letter my local Attorney-General Cameron Dick, as well as Brendan O’Connor, Minister for Home Affairs.

The letter is a collection of thoughts and concerns regarding the R18 debate. I tried to avoid many of the points commonly bought up by pro-R18 supporters (though I still touch on several where relevant) simply because so many others have done a great job of bringing them up in their own submissions with reference to the compelling Interactive Australia research. Instead, my submission is more a personally letter based on my own opinions, experience, and reading.

The letter is as follows:

Saturday, January 2, 2010

R18+ Classification: A reply from the Attorney-General's Department

Shortly before Christmas the long awaited discussion paper on an R 18+ rating for video games was released. It can be found here and I encourage all Australian residents to send in a reply.

Shortly before hand I sent a letter to Brendan O’Connor, the Minister for Home Affairs asking when the discussion paper would be released. Little did I know it would be released only a couple of days latter, which made the whole exercise feel a little late and silly. Today I received a reply, and even though it doesn't mean a whole lot now that the discussion paper is out I thought I'd post a transcript of the letter here for posterity.