Ratings urged for cell games

KIRK HARGREAVES/The Press

BANNED? Cellphone games could soon be subject to censorship in New Zealand.

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Offensive and risque mobile phone games and applications could soon be censored in New Zealand.

Games for the Apple iPhone that contain soft pornography and promote racism, alcohol and child abuse have drawn widespread flak.

Chief censor Bill Hastings says mobile phone games and software downloaded from the internet should be subject to the same classification laws as films and video games.

The Office of Film and Literature Classification is working with the Justice Ministry and the Internal Affairs Department to reform the law so electronic and computer files, including mobile games and software, can be given ratings, he says.

He has no specific concerns at present about the content of particular mobile games and applications.

"But that's not to say the application providers shouldn't think about voluntarily submitting for classification any applications they think might have restrictable content. My view is that video games should be treated all the same regardless of which medium they're conveyed on."

A paper on the proposed change to the Films, Videos and Publications Act is due to be completed by the end of the year, and a bill will be introduced to Parliament.

One iPhone game called "R U Drunk" uses the iPhone's built-in motion sensor to measure the sobriety of the user and has been promoted as a drinking games aid.

Another claims to use the motion sensor to rate the user's sexual performance if they keep hold of the phone while having sex.

Apple culled another game that encouraged users to shake a baby to death after it decided it was inappropriate.

Martin Cocker, executive director of cyber watchdog Netsafe, says there are tens of thousands of mobile phone games and many of them are inappropriate.

"There was one example recently, where you had to kill little islanders. It was based on racism and it's not acceptable to anyone."

Mobile phone games are not yet as graphically violent or sexual as those for computers and game consoles. "But that will come in time as these devices get better and are able to handle more graphics and data and so forth."

Policing mobile games classification will be a challenge.

"There's a logical process for something that goes up on a shelf in a store – it gets checked out and rated. But much of the mobile content people are accessing online is hosted and produced entirely overseas."

Application providers should classify their own games but not can all be trusted to do so, he says.

It is understood Apple, which runs the iPhone application store, vets all iPhone games and software and rejects those it deems offensive.

The Australian Classification Board raised concerns with the Australian Government that mobile games were being sold online without being rated, IT News reported.