What happened to the good country?

Being a gaming Australian has just got that little bit worse thanks to the government's plan for a web filter that will filter out all sites that potentially contain material that has or would have been refused classification in Australia. Currently Australian retailers are not allowed to sell games that have been refused classification because for some stupid reason the government doesn’t allow an R18 rating for videogames in Australia and is the only developed country without one. So basically anything a 15 year old can't play an adult gamer cant play either, isn’t this meant to be a free nation?

It is bad enough that a normal retail can’t stock these games, or that games need to be modified to pass regulation. Up for filtering would be online retailers, downloadable games and flash-based web games that contain inappropriate material not suitable for the little kiddies. According to research by the Interactive Entertainment Association of Australia the average age of an Australian gamer is 30! Think about that for a second, if the average age is 30 why can’t we access material designed for people over the age of 18!

Oh for all the WOW players and second life people out there, your games might be banned as well. Because the games are online only they are exempt from the rating system. Now if the classifications board deems the games to contain inappropriate material not suited for anyone under the age of 15 they will ban access to these games. This is just further highlighting the problem of not have an R18+ classification in Australia.

Want to know the worst thing? This new web filter will block most of the online retailers we use to get games cheap and sometimes the same time as everyone else, Play-Asia anyone? This is just CRAZY! Oh to all the people the imported Ghostbusters on the 360, next time something like that happens you might not be able to. I don’t condone violence in anyway but if you have the idea to march to the government house and start a riot I won’t get in your way.

This might be a little bit scary to some but there is this little auction site, its called eBay. You might have herd of it before, remember how you can buy stuff from all around the world that anyone has placed on there? You may have even bought some games off a seller for really cheap there. Hmm ill let you figure this one out for yourself.

Despite the fact that the Web filter is the most stupid idea that has gone through a governors head in a long time, and that is REALLY saying something, it has been proven that it won’t work. Honestly how often do you come across content on the internet that you deem offensive, unless you’re really looking for it? People in this country are becoming way too sensitive and need a chill pill. The government needs to realise that this is the first step into becoming a China clone.