STOP explicit sexual and violent R18+ games entering Aussie households Federal Attorney-General’s Department is conducting a public consultation asking for submissions on whether the Australian National Classification Scheme should include an R18+ Classification category for computer games.  (Submissions due by February 28th 2010)

Gaming industry advocates want a change to classification rules on electronic games that have blocked games that do not fall within classifications MA15+ or below. Given what is theoretically, at least, available to games developers and players now, games industry lobbyists ought to be up front about the extreme kind of content they are in fact asking for when they ask for R rated games in Australia.

The only content options that the provision of the R18+ category will add to gamer experience will be extremely horrific high-end violence, sexualised violence and sexual depictions. So possibilities would range from 9 Songs-style aimless sexual adventures to the horrific sexualised violence or other violence that might be part of Hostel 2 or Wolf Creek games. Some games already refused classification contained high impact scenes of extreme cruelty and lethal torture.

Many gamers and industry lobbyists argue that there is no difference between watching R rated content in a film and watching it in a gaming format. Yet this is precisely the issue that is contentious and worrisome.

The sexualised violence, scenes of cruelty, torture and other explicit and horrific violence in films like Irreversible or Hostel 2 are concerning enough! Therefore, given the research about gaming and human psychology generally, caution is warranted with the participation, immersion and first person player experience typical of modern gaming technology. Interactivity mixed with high end violence, sexual violence and cruelty is very likely to have at least some negative impacts on players, especially those going through the massive neurobiological changes of adolescence.

Such neurobiological change is experienced right through the teenage years and many experts indicate that the brain is not usually fully mature until the mid twenties. In the meantime, younger teenagers will certainly obtain R rated games if they become readily available, through their brothers, friends or even in poorly policed retail outlets.

This research is only just beginning to shed light on a range of social and psychological questions. For example, some researchers are exploring connections between this neurobiological research and findings that adolescents who engage in significant alcohol consumption are much more likely to develop alcoholism and brain damage compared to those who drink in adulthood.

David Grossman, was an Army Ranger, and a lecturer in psychology at the US Military Academy in New York. Grossman has argued that successful military training must act to disarm the natural reluctance of armed forces personnel to killing. He has studied the methods and psychological effects of training to circumvent defence force personnel’s natural inhibitions to killing fellow human beings. Grossman claims that this aspect of military training strategy showed remarkable improvements in the latter half of the 20th century. Grossman says that in WWII the fire rate amongst American soldiers at the front was a lowly 3 in 10 fire rate but this rate was lifted to 9 in 10 during the Vietnam War.
Earlier in the 20th century, soldiers were likely to have undertaken target practice using bulls-eyes or fairly unrealistic representations of enemy soldiers.

As understanding of the psychology of killing developed, the detail and aggressive “demeanour” of the targets increased. More recently, gaming technology has proved a very cost effective training tool that in part can help lift the fire rate and efficiency of military personnel.

Grossman and others have also studied a number of the school shootings in the US and have advocated for caution about the degree of violence in many games played by teenager currently. Obviously, these shootings had multifactorial causes but Grossman argues that the lethality of these troubled, angry youths is heightened by access to training provided by first person shooter games. And it is these games that constitute part of the training tool kit of the military. Except in the military, personnel are also trained in broader issues like governance and obeying commands, proportionality, restraint of unnecessary aggression and distinguishing between combatants and non-combatants.


ACTION
Write a short submission to the consultation using their template if possible (Submissions due by February 28th 2010)

Download the template here.

Submissions should be sent to:

Email:        classificationreview @ ag.gov.au
Fax:          (02) 6141 3488
Post:        Classification Review
               Attorney-General’s Department
               3 -5 National Circuit
               BARTON  ACT  2600