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ABC apology for video game error

Tony Jones, your punishment is a marathon session of Halo, Grand Theft Auto and Hell's Kitchen.

The ABC has apologised for misinformation aired on a July episode of discussion show Q & A.

During a debate about video games, host Tony Jones claimed the video gaming industry had no classification system.

The statement angered viewers who knew better, prompting one to write a letter of complaint.

That led to an internal investigation which has since resulted in an apology and correction.

“The ABC apologises for the information provided by presenter Tony Jones in the middle of the discussion on gaming and agrees that it may have been confusing and misleading,” said the ABC in a reply to the viewer.

“Mr Jones was aware that a rating system exists for games. He had been briefed on concerns that the current system is inadequate because it does not provide an R rating. But regrettably in the pressure of the program and in attempting to summarise and point to the lack of a comprehensive rating system, Mr Jones erred by stating that there was no ratings system for video games.”

The ABC has added a footnote to its Q&A website:
In the course of the discussion some of the comments were confusing and Tony Jones in summarising the controversy said “There’s a rating system on videos but there’s no rating system on video games.” What he meant of course was that there is no comprehensive classification system which includes an “R” 18+ rating for games, such as exists for videos, movies etc. For more information have a look at the Classification (Publication, Films and Computer Games) Act 1995.

Source: Kotaku

7 Responses

  1. There seems to be such a strong theme in this Country of over 50+ guys having a go at a huge percentage of modern day culture/society. Its clear they simply don’t understand modern things like the billion dollar gaming industry let alone the internet/online community. At least ABC TV still have a go at being open minded and keeping up to date with issues other than budget cuts and interest rights (not that they aren’t important). Jones would have had one or two people research the “gaming” industry and its impact on society but of course with a bias view. Its disappointing they couldn’t have looked up just ONE web page that shows the classifications and guidelines. Its worse if you go on AM radio, there very ultra-conservative on their but not out of political favor more out of the generation they were brought up in and they simply attack everything that out of fear or to get a headline. Its not such an isolated country as it was 30-40 years ago now, and the earlier generations aren’t as dumb as some of those fuddy duddys think.

  2. I can sympathise. These kinds of roundtable shows seem to be a very nervewracking format, even for experienced hosts. They are kind of chaotic, and, for people who are used to fully prepared and rehearsed autocue spiels, it can be hard to concentrate on the things they are meant to be saying, especially if they have to interrupt multiple people arguing over the top of each other and then immediately cut to a bullet point to redirect the discussion.

    Still, it’s nice that they apologised.

  3. Exerpts from this episode of Q&A made it’s way to a few international and local gaming websites and created quite a stir due to the amount of misinformation it contained.

    The real problem with this issue is there is a huge generation gap between gamers and the understanding of older adults/politicians. When you realise the average user of computer games has now reached 30 yet there is still no R classification for games in Australia there is something wrong with the system!

  4. it’s called not doing your research! God all they had to do was go on the internet look up a game and see if it had clasfication. How these people get jobs is beyond me. They spend more time on spin when they could actually put the time in on finding the right facts.

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