Federal Minister for Home Affairs and Justice, Jason Clare, has released the new Guidelines for the Classification of Computer Games, which are due to come into effect in January next year.

 

Mr Clare said that the final guidelines were agreed upon following extensive meetings with State Ministers and an exhaustive public consultation period.

 

The new category will bring the classification of computer games more into line with the process used to classify films, while bringing the country more into line with international standards.

 

"These are important reforms over 10 years in the making," Mr Clare said.

 

The introduction of an R18+ category for computer games has been the subject of extensive public consultation over recent years.

 

The Attorney-General's Department released a discussion paper on the introduction of an R 18+ classification category for computer games in 2009.

 

It received 58,437 submissions in response with 98 per cent of these supporting the introduction of an R 18+ category.

 

States and Territories are in the process of passing their own complementary legislation to ensure that R 18+ computer games are appropriately regulated.

 

More information can be found here