A report from the Joint Standing Committee on the Commissioner for Children and Young People in Perth has recommended the ban of R18+ classified video games in Western Australia.
The committee’s Sexualisation of Children report would amend the Australian Classification Enforcement Act to “prohibit the sale, supply, demonstration, possession or advertisement” of R18+ video games in the state.
After three years of debate, the R18+ rating was officially implemented for video games in Australia on 1 January 2013. Prior to the change, the highest rating for video games was MA15+, with any title deemed too mature for the MA15+ category by the Australian Classification Board subsequently banned from distribution.
In a separate ratings controversy last December, Australia’s Classification Board decided to uphold the MA15+ category of 12 games reviewed at the request of South Australian Attorney-General John Rau.
Rau had requested the Classification Review Board review the MA15+ ratings for Alien Rage, Borderlands 2 Expansion Packs, Company of Heroes 2, Deadly Premonition: The Director’s Cut, Deadpool, Fuse, Gears of War: Judgment, God Mode, Killer is Dead, Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Blacklist, The Walking Dead: 400 Days and The Walking Dead: Survival Instinct.
