Sunday 3 April 2011

With censors swamped, Canberra signals it's time for self-regulation

by Melissa Fyfe, The Age, April 3, 2011


Illustration: Matt Golding.
IN A significant change to the way Australia censors and classifies information and entertainment, the Gillard government has conceded that some industries will have to self-regulate and classify their own products. In an interview with The Sunday Age, Home Affairs Minister Brendan O'Connor said Australia cannot create an ''army of classifiers'' to assess the huge amount of new material available to people - particularly mobile phone games, video and applications. The Australian Law Reform Commission last month began the first major review of the National Classification Scheme in 20 years.
Mr O'Connor said self-regulation was likely to feature in a new system. While it was unlikely films would move to self-regulation, it was impractical for the Classification Board to check material across all new platforms. ''It may be that we reduce regulation. There may be more obligations on industry to deal with matters in a self-regulatory way,'' he said. ''The amount of information people have to look at to classify is growing and we can't create an army of classifiers; it is too unwieldy and expensive.''
The Law Reform Commission review will look at the current classification categories, the rapid pace of technological change, the effect of media on children, and how to classify mobile and online games. In Australia today, some banned computer games are available uncensored on smart phones. Producers of phone applications and games say submitting their products to the Classification Board will be too costly. The games industry welcomed the minister's comments on self-regulation. ''There's a large push from a wide group to have a system that is self-regulated,'' said Ron Curry, head of the industry body Interactive Games and Entertainment Association. Apart from the Law Reform Commission review there are several parliamentary inquiries running into the classification scheme, including a lower house inquiry about the regulation of inappropriate outdoor advertising and a Senate probe into the film and literature classification scheme.

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