Australia treats you like a child: banned content in Australia

No film, book or video game should be "refused classification" i.e. banned in Australia. We have a range of ratings from those suitable for small children right up to those unsuitable for Australian states. Adults have the right to chose what they will be exposed to, and Australia does not have the right to
chose on their behalf.

Between 1930 and 1940 the Office of Film and Literature Classification (OFLC) banned films because they discussed communism, blasphemy or simply were "not in the public interest" (this film dealt with child birth). Currently the reasons the OFLC use are a little better: Cannibal Holocaust is a very graphic 80's film about cannibalism and Ken Park is a film about a group of adolescents with abusive homes; you can see the reasons for banning but it still comes down to Australia's belief that Australians don't have the ability to chose what they want to watch.

It's understandable why Wolf Creek or Underbelly would be banned until the respective trials were closed, but we not only have an R18+ rating (the commonly accepted age where people are considered adults in Australia) but a further X18+ which can not be sold in Australian states (only territories). So there is no argument that the reason is that some material is unacceptable for children (of course there is a lot of films that are unacceptable) as the rating scheme goes high enough to exclude all non-adults.

But it is important to be very careful with what is given the highest rating and what is banned altogether. In China, films and books are banned if they represent the government in anything but a positive light, if they suggest Tibet or Taiwan are their own independent countries. I doubt it is like that currently in Australia, but the fact that we could go in that direction is incredibly concerning.

So it comes down to: Australia believes Australian adults can't choose media that they will think acceptable. If someone will be offended by graphic imagery of cannibalism, then I would think they wouldn't watch a film named Cannibal Holocaust. Even if the content is not obvious in the title, it is most likely obvious in the blurb; but at the very least: it will be obvious in the listed reasons to why the film received the classification - maybe R18+ high level violence, depictions of cannibalism, sexual references

So this brings me to the reason why I bothered to write this at all.... Fallout 3 has been refused classification by the OFLC because it contains drug use. Now, there a second problem here: video games do not have an R18+ rating so anything that does not fit into the MA category or below will be refused classification. This is a string in censorship of otherwise good games: Manhunt, Postal 2, GTA SA, GTA 4. The first pair for violence, the second for sexual content.

I haven't even got onto books yet, and at this stage it looks like I might give it a miss. You may think, well books and literature are one thing but video games are different. If anything, video games should be LESS subject to censorship laws: an FBI study showed that only 12% of psychopaths played violent video games while 24% watched violent movies and 30-something% read violent books. An Australian study showed that the playing of violent video games does not render children prone to violent behaviour.

Basically, if Australia thinks that Australian adults can't appropriately make a choice about what to watch then they are treating them like children. Children can only watch G or PG movies. Similarly, Australians can only watch up to R-rated movies and play up to MA-rated games, and some things are totally unsuitable for the Australian adults mind like blasphemy, cannibalism and drug use. Who gave them this right to choose on our behalf? Who gave them the right to treat us like children? Oh... right.