Submissions For R18 Growing

Advocacy Group, Grow Up Australia, is leading the charge on the trying to get an R18+ category for gaming.

The Attorney-General’s Department is set to receive an influx of submissions from people who support the introduction of an R18+ category for computer games into the Australian classification system.

In what is becoming a contentious issue for the gaming industry, the submissions were made via an online form provided by Grow up Australia, an independent group advocating the introduction of an adults only rating for games.

Grow up Australia will contribute 16,055 submissions from people who used their online form. The bulk of the submissions were collected during a partnership with EB Games during which Grow up Australia posters were displayed in all of EB Games’ 250+ Australian stores. A link to the online submission form was also provided via a banner on the EB Games website during the campaign.

Australia is the only developed nation without an adult rating for video games despite the average Australian gamer being 30 years old.[1] In December 2009, the Attorney-General’s Department released a discussion paper calling for community feedback on the issue.
Aaron John Percival, Gamer activist and one of the founders of Grow up Australia, said “support for the introduction of the R18+ rating has been overwhelming with ninety-nine percent of the submissions made through the website in favour of the change”.

The co-founder of the group, Jake Edwards, added that, “with less than a week until the deadline for submissions, there is still opportunity for people who want to get involved to make a submission directly to the Attorney-General’s Department”.