Page 3137 - Week 11 - Tuesday, 20 September 1994
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What is going to happen when VCRs disappear? Video cassettes are probably going to be around for only a few more years. The new medium for film is highly likely to be CD-ROM. We need to ensure that in banning R-rated computer games, which everybody agrees we should do, we do not ban certain movies. Nobody would say that The Godfather should no longer be able to be seen in 10 years' time unless you happen to have an antique VCR, because the format for home entertainment will be a computer disc, a computer format. If you want to see a classic movie you may not be able to - unless we are very careful in our definitions. We may have banned those classic movies. When an R-rated movie is in a computer format and where you can stop the computer, make it go backwards and have some limited interaction, we need to be careful that we are not banning those.
There are a lot of very difficult issues to be dealt with over the coming months. I can assure Ms Szuty that this issue was really quite high on the agenda at SCAG. We tend to open our meetings with a censorship process, and I am happy to report back to this Assembly on future developments.
There is some research being done on the potential harm of interactive computer games. We really do not know very much about it. The general view is: Perhaps it has not been so serious with what are clearly the stick figure-type animation games. But, as these games get more realistic, the potential for adverse effects on young people is much greater, and what do we do then about the virtual reality-type game? It has not yet emerged as a commercial game medium but is certainly available at very high cost for certain training processes. You can put the helmet on and strap on gloves, and it simulates the feel of a real event and simulates being in a real situation.
The obvious potential of that, for purposes that perhaps we may not support, is very clear. You can imagine what the pornography industry could do with that sort of technology. So, governments around Australia and around the world are going to have to be very careful to keep on top of this. It is an area where technology is moving at just an incredibly rapid rate. It is staggering when you go into a commercial video store, a commercial computer store, now and see the sorts of products that are available in the game format. There are some great benefits there. Complete encyclopaedias of art are available for $50. The potential to bring information into the home is massive, breathtaking and to be applauded. But the potential for damage is also there.
While I am grateful for the Assembly's support on this Bill, I certainly acknowledge Ms Szuty's point that it is an area where there is a lot of work occurring. The ACT is quite active in this, principally with New South Wales and the Commonwealth and principally because John Hannaford was in the United States at about the time I was and saw the same controversy. We both came back, about six months before the product arrived in Australia, aware of the potential for controversy that that type of material would cause.
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