Is Australia Banning Second Life?
In the past 24 hours this blog post has been circulating throughout the Second Life blogosphere. As I am sometime inclined to do, I decided to do some investigation to determine how real this is or how much of it is bullshit. Yes there is some truth to this, but it may never happen either.
Australia is the only developed country without an R18+ classification for games, meaning any titles that do not meet the MA15+ standard – such as those with excessive violence or sexual content – are simply banned from sale by the Classification Board, unless they are modified to remove the offending content.
So far, this has only applied to local bricks-and-mortar stores selling physical copies of games, but a spokesman for Senator Conroy confirmed that under the filtering plan, it will be extended to downloadable games, flash-based web games and sites which sell physical copies of games that do not meet the MA15+ standard.
So does someone like Senator Conroy from a supposedly liberal democracy like Australia have the right to censor web content without some say so from the Government? Well its complicated, and it depends on some interpretations of laws passed a couple of years ago. There are also multiple components to the governments “clean feed”, some compulsory (usually regarding child porn) and some voluntary.
Basically, games are currently “rated” by a group called the Australian Classifications Board (ACB). Anything that not get at least a MA15 or below cannot be sold in box stores in Australia, but can be purchased and downloaded via sites like Steam, Direct2Drive, etc. MMOGs bypass classification all together.
Meanwhile, there was a formation of a Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) which provides a blacklist to ISPs via the “clean feed” legislation. What the evil Senator Conroy has done is expand the ACMA mandate to cover online games, whether downloaded or played online, thus closing the loopholes of the ACB. The ACMA block list is kept secret, but has been leaked online.
While Senator Conroy refers to ‘games’, this appears to just be the spoonful of sugar to make it easier to swallow. Does anyone think that virtual environments like Second Life will be exempt from the proposed network-blocking? We don’t. Some sources are reporting that environments like Second Life and games like Age of Conan or World of Warcraft are confirmed as being banned outright, but at this stage, nobody official has actually said that.
So, currently there is no official word that Second Life will be banned by Australia, it is also possible that Conroy’s orders could be overridden before they take effect.
If Australia does ban online gaming, the roar of opposition both inside and outside that country will be deafening.
Hang onto your popcorn, this ought to be fun to watch!
Having been involved in what may be best described as an advisory capacity with an Australian games company I can say that the Australian games development industry is as alive and well as any in the world.
I can also tell you that Senator Conroy may just be doing as told by the masters of his political party, who currently are in government in Australia, and the week ended 27 June 2009 the Prime Minister and Treasurer, both in the same party as Senator Conroy, had just escaped what looked to be a scandal involving a 12 year old Ute (read small pick-up truck) where the opposition was calling on both the Prime Minister and Treasurer to resign because it was alleged both had offered inappropriately in relation to preferential treatment being given to a car dealer in exchange for the 12 year old Ute (read small pick-up truck) and the Opposition was stating they had an email as proof of this.
It was only mid-week when the email was found to be bogus. However I am quite sure all Government Ministers like Senator Conroy (the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy) had been instructed to do whatever possible to deflect attention away from what was being referred to as “UTEGATE”.
My view is Second Life will NOT be banned by Australia. However this is early wake-up call to Linden Labs of the need to ensure their rules (which I know have been and are under review), in particular involving sex and/or minors, meet the requirements of Europe and Australia.
@AussieGamesInsider
Thanks for the heads up. We do not always get the whole story here in the states. A “distraction” makes perfect sense. Happens all the time here too.
I’m hoping this story turns out to be nothing, though there is a morbid curiosity as to what happens IF it goes through. The most damning headline would be “Australian’s Lose Access to World of Warcraft”, as it would echo world wide making the country somewhat of a laughing stock, and probably more embarrassing to the ruling party than any silly scandal.
Your problem is the same as Americas, the so called ‘liberal’ democrats ARE the ones who are pushing both countries (and others, Great Britain, France, etc. towards a ’statist’ society where the government thinks that they know what’s best for you, and you don’t.
This is bullshit ! Who the hell is this Senator Conroy? he’s not from Australia. This all sounds bogus.
Every time there is a new technology that
1) the govt would find hard to control,
2) could be used for nefarious purposes,
3) the old people in govt don’t understand,
there is an attempt to ban it. Regardless of how many people will be inconvenienced, and how small the threat is.
This happened when camera-phones came out. Whole countries — including the U.S. — talked about banning them, because they could be used in bathrooms, etc.
Then after the alarms sound, the mass users raise their voices, the international community starts to laugh, and with the threat of marginalization by other countries who move ahead with technology, the red-faced, old, idiot knee-jerk lawmakers quietly abandon their attempts to control the forward march.
They tried to ban cars, digital phones, strong encryption, etc. Let’s hope this idiot CONroy and his ilk quickly go the same way as their predecessors.
Its all Bullshit, They have been trying for years to shut down games like Secondlife and Utherverse , they cant, its a Social networking game, and if they do bann online games, Watch all the Gamers Young and Old kick up a fuss , it will never happen, hes just pissed coz his kids play online games. maybe he should try one for him self