Australian censors are letting computer games into New Zealand which are so violent they would be restricted under local laws.
New Zealand Chief Censor Bill Hastings says a check on eight violent games approved for unrestricted sale in Australia, and therefore also in New Zealand, resulted in six being restricted to older age groups under New Zealand law.
Only two were allowed to stay unrestricted here.
Australian censorship ratings have applied in New Zealand since 1994. Local censors only reclassify games restricted in Australia.
But the check on the eight unrestricted games showed New Zealand law on violence is much closer to the law in Germany than to Australia.
German censors restricted all eight games to at least 12-year-olds and over. On the other hand, New Zealand was slightly more liberal on a game with sexual content, Leisure Suit Harry. It was rated R20 in Australia, R18 in Germany and only R16 here.
Mr Hastings plans a larger survey of all games given M ratings in Australia, allowing them to be sold with no legal restriction but not recommended for children under 15.
"I want to do a much more comprehensive study on how identical titles are rated in Australia, New Zealand and some benchmark countries such as the UK or Germany, to see whether we should keep Australia rating our unrestricted games."
The eight violent games and Leisure Suit Harry were referred to him by Internal Affairs Department inspectors, so it was possible they were unusual.
If there were only a dozen of them it probably was not a big worry, but if there were more, he would consider recommending a law change to require all games rated M in Australia to be reclassified.
Games rated in Australia 'too violent'
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