Australia's Atkinson OK With Restricting Adult Liberties

[Bagaloo]

One person gets absolute veto power?
Thats gotta suck, when its someone as biased as him.
^^^
Refering to the part where he cites his own experiences with his kids.

A unanimous voting system sounds nice in theory, but in practice it leads to a lot of slow decision making, and a lot of back and forth debating.

 

[MrGFunk]

Isn't this guy saying rating systems don't work because people don't track what they purchase and allow their kids to play games which are not suitable.

Surely, we can extrapolate this to mean the only content that should be released is E. Is he also going to ban PG, 12, 15, 18. Atkinson sounds like a double standard turd using his power. Address the cause (parents and gamestores) not the symptom and ruin other people's personal time.

Eurgh!
How do they track imports. PS3 is region free, so this could be bypassed with the chance of becoming a criminal, I guess - ridiculous.

 

[L33tsauce_Marty]

Oh just SHUT UP ALREADY. Jesus this guy is getting as bad as Jack Thompson over in the US.

 

[MercurySteam]

Goddamit, ever since Kevin Rudd came in, I've actually had to put up with all the shit the Australian Politicians (or at least hear about it). And this is a very good example.

Us Aussies don't deserve this, the only real annoying shit we had to put up with when we had John Howard was his eyebrows......

 

[JohnSmith]

So, anyone know how long we have to wait before this idiot is out of office?
Also have to agree that he has completely invalidated that concept of ratings with his comments if R18+ games cannot be trusted not to make their way into the hands of children then the whole rating/censorship/age prohibition system is flawed, [Sarcasm] i mean whoever heard of children getting their hands on alcohol or porn, its definitely only games that are the problem [/Sarcasm].
Lastly I would have thought that the more conservative minded would have been all for a restricted behind the counter rating so they could enjoy slapping it all over any game they thought might have adult-ish themes e.g. GTA, etc. Also why not make some kind of fiendish child-lock mandatory on those games then the politicians get that warm glow of nanny state prowess and gamers don't get there liberties infringed.

 

[Andy Chalk]

The thing I find interesting about Atkinson is that I've never seen him bother even try to back up his position with facts. Most rabid videogame haters at least take the time to dig up some studies and statistics, no matter how flawed they may be, to support their beliefs; Atkinson seems quite satisfied to work from a position of pure opinion and paternalism.

 

[Kriegsherr]

Do you think he'll ever realise that in a way he's helping kids get violent games earlier? If we had an R18 rating, sure we'd get an uncensored version and it may or may not be worse for kids to play, but instead the company cuts little bits out of the game and re-releases it, now, instead of having to be 18, kids as young as 15 can go out and buy GTA4.

If this is his opinion he really is better off just allowing an R18 rating, that way these games can be properly rated, 15 year old kids can't buy them themselves, we don't get frustrating delays for games with unnecessary cuts in them and everybody is happy.

I personally don't see a problem with kids playing violent games and whatever providing they can distinguish the difference between whats real and what isnt, but if this is what Atkinson wants them the way I see it its really in his best interest to give us an R18 rating

 

[sheic99]

I don't hate the guy, he's just misinformed. He says games are more harmful because of their interactive nature, but the fact of the matter is that while a lot of studies say this is the case, a heck of a lot more say they aren't any more harmful. You just can't make a definitive statement one way or the other when there's conflicting research.

I read nearly all of those studies. Mind you that there are only about 15-20 of them, including the extremely biased ones. They all say there is a spike in aggressive behavior, but many of them say it is not statistically significant compared to non-violent/ non-competitive games. Also, most studies are based on those used for television because they are of a similar nature and the reaction of the audience is the same.

 

[shadow skill]

Anyone catch him say thirty year olds are children? This man is funny.

 

[A random person]

Ok, in response to the whole restricting adult liberties to protect children thing, I've said this before and I'll say it again: Video games aren't that damaging. Really, if the parents aren't retarded (I mean even for normal parents, for the majority of cynics on this forum), a fairly young kid could see an R-18 movie or play a game that would fall under R-18 without really being scarred. I know I could handle them when I was pretty young.

 

[A random person]

Oh just SHUT UP ALREADY. Jesus this guy is getting as bad as Jack Thompson over in the US.

The difference is that this guy has actual political power and is using it. Jack Thompson was just a jester.