Chief Censor - He's at it again!

Forums › ICT Policies and Regulation › Chief Censor - He's at it again!

scuwp

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#156040 17-Nov-2014 15:01

As if overseas movie content via Global Mode et al wasn't enough, he is now upset over game distributors.

Old fashioned government service fumbling in the modern internet era? Out of date legislation?

http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/games/63271139/censor-questions-digital-game-distributors.html

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#1177406 17-Nov-2014 15:23

Utterly pointless in 2014. When parents ignore the R18 rating and buy GTA V for little Johnny-8-years-old, then there's really no point in even trying. OTOH it must be an awesome job to watch movies and play games 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. Where do I sign on?

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scuwp

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#1177415 17-Nov-2014 15:39

SaltyNZ: Utterly pointless in 2014. When parents ignore the R18 rating and buy GTA V for little Johnny-8-years-old, then there's really no point in even trying. OTOH it must be an awesome job to watch movies and play games 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. Where do I sign on?

Line starts behind me! Getting paid to watch movies and play games all day...oh hang on, isn't that the dole?

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wellygary

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#1177427 17-Nov-2014 15:49

I can see the conversation now

"I am pretty sure that this Call of Duty 45 game will get a Violence rating, but I just need to fully check out level 56 of Hitlers lair so I can be sure its Ok for the kiddies, I'll let you know in a couple of weeks, what my decision is"....

plambrechtsen

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#1177429 17-Nov-2014 15:52

I would have thought rather than trying to hit Google & Apple via their app stores where the games content on average is not R18+. Wouldn't they want to hit the console makers via Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo to check that those games had been rated. As I would suspect the likelyhood of R18 game on a console rather than a tablet would be far higher.

It does seem a bit like a dinosaur playing whack-a-mole though.

Hammerer

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#1177432 17-Nov-2014 15:58

scuwp: As if overseas movie content via Global Mode et al wasn't enough, he is now upset over game distributors.

Old fashioned government service fumbling in the modern internet era? Out of date legislation?

http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/games/63271139/censor-questions-digital-game-distributors.html

Taking the article at face value, his comments sound reasonable and he doesn't sound "upset".

I guess you didn't notice that the gaming industry rep is at it again when he overstates the issue by saying it applies to all games: "Jack's idea of classifying every game is 'crazy'."

The Chief Censor is only talking about some games. Those are the ones which likely to be restricted in NZ because they are already restricted in Australia or the UK. It doesn't make any difference for the many games with unrestricted ratings.

gehenna

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#1177473 17-Nov-2014 17:15

I thought Australia didn't have a game rating system?

Behodar

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#1177486 17-Nov-2014 17:26

gehenna: I thought Australia didn't have a game rating system?

About 3/4 of the games that I buy in NZ have Australian ratings on them, so...

charsleysa

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#1177493 17-Nov-2014 17:32

gehenna: I thought Australia didn't have a game rating system?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_banned_video_games_in_Australia

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SaltyNZ

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#1177494 17-Nov-2014 17:32

Hammerer:

The Chief Censor is only talking about some games. Those are the ones which likely to be restricted in NZ because they are already restricted in Australia or the UK. It doesn't make any difference for the many games with unrestricted ratings.

I still don't need The Government to tell me whether I want a game or not. If he's adult enough to play it without coming away with lasting psychological scars, why aren't I? Does he have some sort of special helmet to protect him from Bad Vibes?

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InstallerUFB

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#1177495 17-Nov-2014 17:41

SaltyNZ:
Hammerer:

The Chief Censor is only talking about some games. Those are the ones which likely to be restricted in NZ because they are already restricted in Australia or the UK. It doesn't make any difference for the many games with unrestricted ratings.

I still don't need The Government to tell me whether I want a game or not. If he's adult enough to play it without coming away with lasting psychological scars, why aren't I? Does he have some sort of special helmet to protect him from Bad Vibes?

In that case would you let 'your' 6 yr old by a sexualy explisit game with their pocket money and then have lasting psychological scars, our would you prefer it to be restricted?

JimmyH

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#1177508 17-Nov-2014 18:41

No, but how would they? If you have a password on your Steam account, and your six year old (presumably) doesn't have their own credit card, how would they buy *anything* without you explicitly approving and enabling it?

rugrat

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#1177531 17-Nov-2014 19:36

How much does it cost to get a rating in other countries?

Article mentions $1400 for New Zealand if Restricted in UK or Austraila, don't see an international company paying that for New Zealand with population size, so guess if censor has his way we get none of the content that's restricted.

Maybe we should just accept the ratings given in another country, rather then if something being restricted overseas then it needs to be rerated here, as I don't see international company's complying, and it all looks unenforceable as a company only has to follow the rules in the country it's operating in, but with the internet it's now easier for the end user of a product to buy internationally.

So far he's only been targeting paid for content, guess the likes of YouTube will be in his next press realease, lol.

SaltyNZ

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#1177534 17-Nov-2014 19:43

InstallerUFB:

In that case would you let 'your' 6 yr old by a sexualy explisit game with their pocket money and then have lasting psychological scars, our would you prefer it to be restricted?

Of course not. That's why I buy all the games for my 6 year old. Do you let your 6 year old loose in the game shop to buy whatever the checkout guy lets her get away with?

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MikeB4

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#1177542 17-Nov-2014 19:46

If Parliament has ordained that these should be classified then he is doing the job he is paid to do and should do until Parliament changes the requirements.

SaltyNZ

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#1177545 17-Nov-2014 19:54

KiwiNZ: If Parliament has ordained that these should be classified then he is doing the job he is paid to do and should do until Parliament changes the requirements.

Oh yes, nobody's saying he's wrong from that perspective. We're saying the very notion is obsolete.

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