Australia Approves Final R18+ Gaming Guidelines 67
dotarray writes "Despite stories suggesting that a change to the Australian ratings system may be as far as two years away, the Federal Minister for Home Affairs has announced that each Australian state and territory has signed off on the final guidelines required for the introduction of an adult R18+ classification Down Under."
Re:What guidelines? (Score:2, Insightful)
Apparently you don't know about the problems with video games down under.
That's not a problem with video games down under. It's a problem with free speech down under. Namely, the lack of it. The Australian government may be giving its subjects a little more chain, but they're still not free.
Re:What guidelines? (Score:4, Insightful)
You obviously have never a snuff film then because they are out there
Did you know, that when you see a character die in a movie, the actor didn't actually die? Strange but true.
People seem to forget that the same array of special effects and clever editing are available to adult film producers, if used (far) less often due to expense.
Re:Its been a long time coming (Score:4, Insightful)
Censorship is never a solution. Soviet Union made owning a photo of an erected penis a criminal offense [soviet-empire.com]. It is perhaps not a coincidence that Soviet society was plagued with sexual maniacs like Chikatilo [wikipedia.org].
Meanwhile, the US never had a sexual predators and maniacs like Berkowitz, Gacy, Bundy, Gein, amongst others.
Your point that censorship never works is valid, but your example is horribly flawed. I read the wikipedia article on Chikatilo and one thing immediately stuck out at me, he had the same hallmarks in his childhood as western serial killers. Vicious parents (beatings et al.), early fascination with fire and death, above average intelligence, bullied and above all else, serious sexual problems in adolescence. It strikes me that Chikatilo would have been a serial killer in almost any society, communism had little to do with it, he almost fits the textbook conditions that created most killers in the west.