Film •
Pasolini's
Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom has twice been banned in Australia. The Home Affairs Minister,
Brendan O'Connor, asked the Classification Review Board to reassess the decision; however, the review failed to find any fault in the classification. The film was banned in 1998, and was released after two failed attempts in September 2010, when the
ACB classified an uncut version of
Salò R 18+, mainly due to extra material providing greater context. • In 1992, Island World Communications Ltd and
Manga Entertainment Australia Ltd had
Urotsukidoji: Legend of the Overfiend submitted to the
OFLC. It was the first animated feature to be banned in Australia and the feature was banned outright, similar to
Violence Jack.
Urotsukidoji was then censored to meet the OFLC's standards. The Australian version is the most censored in the Western world. Many fans of
anime imported uncensored versions of
Urotsukidoji: Legend of the Overfiend from the UK. The rest of the
Urotsukidoji series was censored in Australia, with many still importing or downloading the American versions. •
Ninja Scroll was originally released in 1994 in Australia by Manga Entertainment Ltd. It originally had the
MA 15+ rating on the VHS, but this was overturned in 1997 when
Phillip Ruddock had the anime reviewed after an uncut screening of the movie on the
SBS. A few months later it was given an
R 18+ rating and was uncut, then edited again, eventually using the
BBFC cut of it. This was overturned in 2003 when
Madman Entertainment and Manga Entertainment Ltd. released the uncut version. •
Romance, a new crop within the
arthouse genre, which features short scenes of
actual sex began to attract closer scrutiny. The film was initially refused classification in Australia, before it was awarded an
R 18+ on appeal. It single-handedly paved the way for actual sex to be accommodated in the
R 18+ classification in Australia. In 2000, the film was classified as
R 18+. On 10 May 2002, the film was subsequently banned and pulled from cinemas and still remains prohibited in Australia to this day due to exploitative and offensive depictions of sexual violence, extreme violence and depictions of behavior and fetishes that are considered offensive or abhorrent. •
Ken Park, an American film about teenagers that features a scene of
autoerotic asphyxiation, among other sexually explicit scenes. The ban, however, is actually due to exploitative sexual depiction of minors, which is a criminal offence in Australia. In response to the ban, a protest screening was held which was shut down by the police. • Prominent movie reviewer
Margaret Pomeranz, then host of
The Movie Show on the SBS, was arrested (and later cautioned and released) along with several others after attempting to screen at a hall what she described as "a wonderful film".
Tom Gleisner, host of
The Panel (a prime-time comedy show), openly stated on the show that he had downloaded and watched the film. • Former
New South Wales Premier
Bob Carr stated that he thought the banning of
Ken Park and other films was inappropriate, and that his attorney-general,
Bob Debus, would discuss changing the laws with other state attorneys-general at an upcoming meeting. • In October 2017 the classification board was described as homophobic by Luke Buckmaster on flicks.com.au for classifying the film
Tom of Finland as
R 18+ for high impact sexualised imagery and nudity. The board disputed the allegation, stating that it had classified the film in accordance with its published guidelines and that the distributor had sought
R 18+ conditions for its screenings at the 2017 Scandinavian Film Festival. Buckmaster also compared what he perceived to be the board's heavy-handed approach unfavorably to
Netflix, which he argued was permitted to regulate its own content. The board disagreed with this comparison, noting that it was piloting a scheme to streamline the classification of Netflix content in Australia.
Video games Video gaming censorship in Australia is considered to be one of the strictest in the Western world. Such controversial and noteworthy cases include: •
Grand Theft Auto III was withdrawn from sale for allowing players to have sexual intercourse with prostitutes; the game was later reinstated when this action was removed. Specifically, the player could solicit intercourse from a prostitute, and then kill her. The ability to solicit sex from prostitutes in the game was the action that was removed, but in-game characters and pedestrians could still violently murder them.
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City was also pre-censored for the same reasons. Though, in 2010
Vice City was classified uncut again receiving an
MA 15+ and an uncensored version of
GTA 3 was given an
R 18+ in 2019. •
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was withdrawn from sale in July 2005 following the revelation that an interactive sex minigame was included in the content files on the game's disc; one could not ordinarily access this, but a third party modification, known as the
Hot Coffee mod, allowed the player to access the minigame and the inclusion of the scenes on the game disc took the game outside the
MA 15+ category. The
MA 15+ rating was re-instated after a modified version was released worldwide by
Rockstar Games, removing the content files for the sex scenes. •
Grand Theft Auto IV was also pre-censored prior to classification and release in the Australian region. In the American release, sexual encounters with prostitutes occur inside the player's vehicle and the player has the ability to rotate the camera for a clearer view of what transpires. In the censored Australian version, the camera is fixed behind the vehicle, which rocks from side to side with accompanying audio effects. It is impossible for the player to view the inside of the car. Rockstar later submitted the uncut version of the game, which went on to receive the same
MA 15+ rating as its censored counterpart, and a patch was released for the PS3, PC and Xbox 360 to uncensor the game. •
50 Cent: Bulletproof was banned for encouraging gang violence. A version removing the game's arcade mode, cutting down on gore, and with an automatic game over for killing innocents was given an
MA 15+ rating. •
Fallout 3 was refused classification by the
OFLC due to the "realistic visual representations of drugs and their delivery method (bringing) the 'science-fiction' drugs in line with 'real-world' drugs." A revised version of the game was resubmitted to the OFLC and reclassified as
MA 15+ on 7 August 2008 after drug names were changed. It was later clarified that the only change done to the final version of the game was the name "morphine" changed to "Med-x". This change was done to all versions worldwide; thus, Australia got the same version of the game as other countries uncut with an
MA 15+. •
Atelier Totori Plus: The Adventurer of Arland was given an R 18+ rating on
PlayStation Vita, a huge jump from the
PS3 version's PG rating, with the reason being "references to sexual violence". Comparatively, in North America, the game received a T for Teen (ages 13+) rating, a 12+ rating in Japan (CERO B), and a PEGI 12 rating. Its strict rating resulted in the creation of an
internet meme captioned "High Impact Violence" that satirizes the Classification Board for labeling mildly sensual animation as having "high impact".
Adult (18+) ratings for video games Many games were banned before 2011 on the basis that the
R 18+ rating did not apply to video games at the time. This was the subject of complaint in the gaming community, who argued that there is no reason why adults should be prevented from seeing content in games that they could see in a film. One of the main opponents to the introduction of an
R 18+ rating for video games was the former South Australian Attorney-General,
Michael Atkinson, who vetoed every attempt to include one. On 11 August 2010, at a public forum, opposition leader
Tony Abbott was asked a question about his views on the absence of an
R 18+ rating for video games and whether he had any policies relating to the subject, saying, "if what happens with video games is not roughly analogous to what happens in other areas, that seems silly ... Instinctively I'm with you, and it's something I'd be happy to look at, if we are in Government." In December 2010, Attorney General
Robert McClelland appeared to be moving on this issue following the release of telephone poll results conducted by the Minister for Home Affairs Brendan O'Connor, showing roughly 80% in support of an
R 18+ classification. On 22 July 2011, at a meeting of state and territories' attorneys general, an agreement was reached for the introduction of an
R 18+ classification. It was planned to introduce the rating towards the end of 2011. On 22 July 2011, a meeting of attorneys-general produced an in-principle agreement to introduce the
R 18+ classification for video games; however, NSW Attorney-General
Greg Smith abstained from the vote. The Home Affairs Minister,
Brendan O'Connor, said the federal government would over-ride NSW and implement the
R 18+ rating regardless of its decision and would be officially available before the end of 2011. On 10 August the NSW Attorney General agreed on the
R 18+; thus, the rating would be accepted and available to all states before the end of 2011. As of 1 January 2013, the
R 18+ rating has been officially implemented for video games although it is apparently not being used to full effect as many games are still being
refused classification. The first game to be released with an
R 18+ rating was
Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 Plus. The game
Saints Row IV became the first game to be refused classification under the new standard on 25 June 2013.
State of Decay became the second game to be refused classification less than 24 hours after the first (
Saints Row IV) was banned. Both were refused classification on the grounds of "illicit or proscribed drug use related to incentives and rewards". Video games classified from 22 September 2024 containing "simulated gambling" will now be classified, at minimum, as R 18+. == See also ==