5MG: Techno-censorship
Summary Description Who has final say over what
we see online? 5 Minute Guides looks at Net and games censorship
in Australia.
Author
Publication
Roullas Top10 Simon Vandore
Newswire
No
Editorial InformationArticle Location
Article Topic 5 Minute Guides
Story Order
Story Group 000903
Post Date 04/09/2000 07:21 AM Status Posted Entered by Simon
Vandore on 01/09/2000 09:36 AM
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Content
Introduction
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Who's in charge of censorship in Australia?
The main authority that makes censorship decisions (also known as
'classification') is the Office of Film and Literature
Classification (OFLC), a Federal Government body. Its job is to
assign ratings to publications, films and computer games.
For television and radio broadcasting, the Australian
Broadcasting Authority (ABA) oversees an industry self-regulation
scheme with penalties for noncompliance. The ABA is also in
charge of Internet content regulation.
How does censorship work?
Before films, videos and computer games can be sold, hired or
demonstrated in Australia, they must be rated by the appropriate
OFLC committee. The same goes for publications which contain
anything that could be deemed unsuitable for minors. Those
producing material subject to classification must pay a fee for
every item classified by the OFLC.
Classifications relate to levels of violence, sexual content,
coarse language, adult themes and drug use. The OFLC appears to
find animated violence less objectionable than realistic
portrayals. Anything involving non-cartoon style figures or
real-life issues (especially sex) has a greater chance of being
refused classification.
What are the different rating schemes?
Films and computer games follow a similar pattern. The General,
or G rating applies to movies and computer games considered
suitable for all ages. For computer games, a G rating and a G(8+)
rating exist -- the latter refers to anything which might disturb
or distress very young children only. Above this, the PG rating
applies to films which are deemed to require parental guidance
for children under 15 years of age. The Mature (M) rating for
films and M(15+) for computer games apply to more realistic
depictions of violence, horror and sex. MA for films, and the
MA-Restricted rating for computer games, mean they cannot be
sold, hired or shown to anyone under 15. The R (Restricted)
rating for films means viewers must be 18 or over, while the X
rating applies to nonviolent erotica which is banned from sale
everywhere in Australia except the ACT and Northern Territory.
The OFLC may choose not to award a classification, in which case
the material is categorised Refused Classification (RC) and
banned from sale or exhibition nationwide. The OFLC generally
only uses this category for publications relating to sexual
activity or those which have covers that may not be suitable for
public display. Only 12 publications were refused classification
in the 1998 to 1999 financial year. Queensland has a ban on the
sale of literature that is unsuitable for children, but this is
available on a restricted basis in other states.
The ABA and the television industry have come up with a different
set of classifications for TV programming (even though some of it
may be the same as that covered by the OFLC as film). The TV
classifications scale is as follows: C (Children) and P
(Preschool Children), G (General), PG (Parental Guidance
Recommended), M (Mature), MA (Mature Audience) and AV (Adult
Violent). Anything stronger than the AV category is classified as
Not Suitable for Television.
How does censorship of the Internet work?
Some would say 'it doesn't', because of the Internet's lack of
national borders. The official regime for Internet regulation in
Australia is set out by the Broadcasting Services Amendment
(Online Services) Act 1999, which came into effect in January
2000. This law makes content hosts and service providers liable
for what they carry on their servers. It gives the Australian
Broadcasting Authority (ABA) the power to issue a take-down
notice requiring a host company to remove material from its
servers or face a fine of $27,500 per day.
Where sites hosted overseas are concerned, the ABA has come to an
agreement with the Internet industry (under the industry's code
of practice) that it will simply notify the suppliers of approved
filtering products. ISPs have to make these filtering products
available to their users. Where the overseas content is
considered illegal (such as child pornography), the ABA can refer
the matter to the police, who may refer it to the appropriate
overseas law enforcement body.
Some say the Internet is the opposite of broadcasting, because
content is selected by the content seeker, rather than being
pushed out by the content provider. However, the ABA has adopted
the OFLC's guidelines for the classification of film and videos,
and applied them to Internet content.
But there's still porn online in Australia! Has the law
failed?
Not really, the law has just given itself loopholes. The ABA has
implemented a complaints system for Australian citizens to point
out objectionable material online. For a take-down notice to be
issued, someone must complain about the material and the ABA must
investigate and find that the material is prohibited, or likely
to be prohibited. The effect of a take-down notice only applies
to Australian servers -- sites have been known to simply move
their content to an overseas server and continue to use the same
domain name.
Why is there no R rating for computer games?
Good question. The ratings for computer games only go as high as
MA15+. Anything that does not meet this standard is Refused
Classification. The argument is that parents have less control
over what their child is doing on a PC, compared to what they see
at the movies or read in books. Others point out that computer
games are not necessarily for children and claim an R18+ category
is a big omission.
Who's on the other side of the fence?
Electronic Frontiers Australia is the most vocal opponent of
Internet censorship in Australia. The adult industry, which
includes the producers of adult films and publications, is
represented by the Eros Foundation, which has a strong
anticensorship stance.
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Bulletin Summary5 Minute Guides: Techno-censorship
Who has final say over what we see online? 5 Minute Guides looks
at Net and games censorship in Australia.
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