May 5, 2008 -
It is the nature of the U.S. video game market that parents make the final decision about what constitutes appropriate content for their child.Not so in New Zealand, where the government's chief censor has ruled that parents may not purchase Grand Theft Auto IV for their children.
As reported by the New Zealand Herald, Bill Hastings (left) of New Zealand's Office of Film and Literature Classification issued an opinion that store clerks may not sell the game to parents who are buying it for their teen. Said Hastings:
If it's perfectly obvious the parent is buying the game for the child, don't sell it to the parent. If a game is R18 it's R18 for a reason and it's illegal to make it available to anyone under that age.
In New Zealand, adults buying the game for a minor - even for their own child - could be jailed for 90 days or made to pay a $10,000 fine. The Herald notes, however, that the law has never been enforced.
And while Hastings seems to take his censorship duties seriously, he had some quite reasonable comments about GTA IV's more redeeming qualities:
With the games we ban you have to kill everyone you meet and you're generally rewarded for making the killing more gruesome. In Grand Theft Auto, you don't have to kill everybody you meet - you could drive around and just look at the architecture...
All games in the Grand Theft Auto series have a kind of black satire - an overstatement of machismo. It takes the piss out of Soprano-type things.
By the way, we've heard America's self-appointed censor, Jack Thompson, claiming that the sex scenes were taken out of the Australia/New Zealand version of GTA IV. Not entirely so, according to the Herald:
In the version submitted for classification [in New Zealand], the sex scenes include going to a strip club and getting lap dances. There's also another point where the player can have sex with a prostitute - but in the version sold here, there is no visual depiction, just audio.
Thompson is trying to claim that the game is pornography, making its sale to 17-year-olds (as permitted by its M rating) a crime. If so, it would likely be the world's first-ever sans genitalia porn.
Comments
Shhhh!!!
Don't let You-Know-Who hear that! He'll demand an amendment to the constitution that only HE should make that decision for other peoples' children. Like in his Bully lawsuit where he states that HE should be the one to make the decision as to what is or is not appropriate for other peoples' kids.
Nightwng2000
NW2K Software
Just in case people want to know, New Zealand has a sort of 2 tier rating system:
Tier 1: Entertainment anybody can have. These are rated G, PG and M. G is similar to America's E and M is kind of like America's T (teen).
Tier 2: Entertainment restricted to a certain age. Not too sure how X and NC-17 and all that work in the USA, but in NZ, the rating we use R, but (these days) it is always accompanied by a number. The 2 most common are R16 and R18. Nobody is allowed a title rated these unless they are at least 16 or 18, respectively. Less common, but still used are R13 and R15. Not too sure how a 15 year old and a 16 year differ much, but that's the NZ rating system for ya.
So, games in tier 1 can be bought for or even bought by anybody of any age. A child can buy an M game, although M is usually not very bad. Examples are Burnout Revenge, Ninety-Nine Nights and Oblivion.
Tier 2 games are restricted to the specified age or above and it is illegal to provide, in any way, such material to somebody under that age.
Despite the fact it can get you a reasonably severe punishment for even supplying a 17 year old with an R18 game, NZ censorship STILL feels the need to ban games that are overly violent games, which they suspect will make their way to the hands of underage people anyway. Examples of this are Postal 2 and Manhunt. NZ censorship also felt the need to ban an anime (Japanese cartoon) called Puni Puni Poemy that had such terrible things as "implied underage rape". (The scene was not as bad as it may sound.) Nevertheless, NZ is not protected by a Constitution allowing for freedom of expression and all that. We have something, but it's not as powerful as the US Constitution is for the US.
Here's a little something to mull over about NZ censorship: Gears of War, an extremely violent and bloody game, involving chopping humanoid creatures in half with a chainsaw in a bloody mess that splashes the screen with blood, got an R16 rating. That is the same rating as all 3 Halo games. Crackdown, on the other hand, got an R18 rating. Not sure how MS pulled that off...
Frankly, I could care less about GTA4. I played Vice City, and it's enough for me, thanks. Does that blow your mind, Jack? A gamer that doesn't care, much less want to play, GTA?
No GTA but feel free to experience the live action gore of the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Yeah, then he gets laughed out of Congress for being a Retard and sued into bankruptcy Buy Take two!
That I would actually like to see, JBT begging for change on the street.
Scratch that, I don't wish that on people i hate, let alone someone I think is a retard. he's got enough problems. Ironicly most of them are all in his head.
Anybody know how they're going to prove an actual INTENT to buy the game for the kids? Short of telepathy I mean.
"Not.. my son?"
"Here you go, have a good day sir!"
At first is sounds great. "Hey parents can't buy a violent game for their kids, and then bitch about it being violent, awesome."
But then you realize it still takes away from parents who think their 15 or 16 year old is mature enough for GTA. Now, to me, no matter how mature some kids are. I don't think a 7 year old should play GTA, but it's the choice of the parent buying the game for them. It shouldn't be regulated.
It would just be nice if parents really knew the content of the games they let their kids play, and judge if they really want their child playing those games. Most of the time they assume video game violence is going to be childrens cartoon style. Then they are outraged when that rated M game has guns in it.
I'd really like to know, though, how this law could be enforced? How could someone know if an adult was buying the game for their children unless A) The kid is right there with them when they do it or B) They loudly declare their intentions at the store.
Once again JT gets his facts wrong, or deliberately twists them to further his agenda. I have the feeling he's going to have a hard time proving their actual porn in the game. Explicit language and lap-dancing by themselves do not a porn game make.
Then again, I believe he is going for a strict definition of pornogrpahy. Specifically: " the depiction of acts in a sensational manner so as to arouse a quick intense emotional reaction." So in that sense, maybe. Still, this is coming from a man who thinks the act of a simple ass-slapping constitutes S&M. :P
he classes it as porn beause porn is 'anything that elicits a sexual response' apparently. He skims over the fact that practically millions of things coul be classed as porn under such a definition. In daytime Tv if a woman winks at somebody suggestively isnt that then 'porn'?
daft.
@GP you may want to get a link up to that interview. The podcast was run by Jim Sterling, and although JT actually makes some (for once) semi-ok points, he does demonstrate what an ignorant ass he is. Oh and once again brings up the oft debunked 'military trained ppl on doom' thing.
I've heard that podcast. Yeah, he does make some semi-valid points, but then he demonstrates his own ignorance and goes too far in his zealotry. What really gets under my skin more than anything else though was the condescending tone he took to Sterling, which is the same tone he takes with just about everyone.
He also restated how he thought it would be preferable for companies like Take 2 to tell retailers how if they sell their games to minors, they will withdraw their business. I know from the way business works, that doesn't make sense, but can someone please fill me in on the specifics as to why it doesn't exactly?
Whats really hilarious about this is Video Stores don't card kids for the unrated movies they Buy/Rent, which are far more explicit than any video game would be.
@Godkarmachine
I was just thinking that,hilarious!
@Benjamin
It's a fine idea, I have to agree with you there. But these kinds of laws are very hard to enforce practically, since you can't really know for sure who is going to play a game someone buys, short of stalking them. (Which, I'm pretty sure, is illegal even down there in Bat Country.)
As a final note, no country should need laws to tell them what is obvious.
/b
Think History has proven this type of device to control people is far more damaging to society than people playing "good and bad guy" games.
That scares me far more than a kid playing GTA
(Am I being sarcastic enough?)
This is a dream for censors over here, who would love to fine and jail anyone who would dare make a parental decision for themselves and allow their kid to play GTA. This hopefully will be met with outrage, it is up to a parent to decide if they want to buy GTA IV and let little Jimmy play it. It is not the job of the government to make that decision for the parent.
Scary govt censorship tho.. the mere implication of enforcement is impossible without treading over the rest of their human rights.
Are you over 18? Yes/No
Are you buying this game for a minor? Yes/No
You wouldn't lie about something like that, would you? Yes/No/Maybe
Oh, and JT is a twit.
I think a guy who looks likes he sleeps with his bong and has a watch from the mid-80s should have more things to worry about..
Actually, that's not entirely true. From what I understand, hentai, due to some weird quirk involving old Japanese censorship standards, is very limited in how it can actually depict genitalia... despite being VERY "free" in most other ways.
While I'm not aware of the specifics of Doom, but the main issue isn't whether the military uses video games or video game style simulations as part of their training. It's the claim that they use them to desensitize recruits. When in fact the military uses them to help teach team tactics and cooperation and the like.
maybe they realized that the King James version of the Holy Bible has the word "piss" in it.
岩「…I can see why Hasselbeck's worried about fake guns killing fake people. afterall, she's a fake journalist on a fake news channel」
It also has the word "ass" but that's a different story.
@Gameclucks
Cute. You win the Internet.
Bingo. Team tactics. Video simulation and immersion does wonders for that.