Archive for August, 2008

WA Greens oppose R18+ game rating, so which party supports it?

Friday, August 29th, 2008

UPDATE 01/09/08: The WA greens have confirmed this policy. The WA Greens party will oppose the introduction of an R18+ classification for games if elected in the upcoming Western Australian election. According to WAvotes.org.au, a website run by the Australian Christian Lobby where parties respond to questions likely to be raised by ...

Interview with 2channel founder on website responsibility and crime

Friday, August 29th, 2008

[caption id="attachment_449" align="alignleft" width="127" caption="2chan founder Hiroyuki Nishimura"][/caption] Here's an interesting interview with Hiroyuki Nishimura, the Founder of Japan's largest online discussion forum 2channel. In it, Nishimura talks about his website's responsibility in the Akihabara stabbing rampage, the distribution of controversial material online, filtering, and online anonymity. Hiroyuki Nishimura: 'Is there any ...

NSW Government dropped support for Nine’s Scorched

Friday, August 29th, 2008

[caption id="attachment_444" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="Screen cap from the Scorched trailer. There's a secret. Or Not..."][/caption] You've probably seen the dodgy previews for Scorched running all week on Channel 9 (or the fake websites). What you might not have known is that the NSW State Government dropped their support for the show ...

Another swearing complaint fired off at Ramsay

Thursday, August 28th, 2008

Not three complaints. Not even two. One single complaint about Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares which aired in March was enough for the ACMA to declare that the language used in the episode exceeded its M Classification. It should have been MA15+. Channel Nine does accept Ramsay's use of the word 'cunt' probably ...

Melbourne City Council to pre-approve artwork, keep sex mild

Wednesday, August 27th, 2008

Here I was thinking Queensland was going to be the only State to flex its censorship muscles this month, but now Victoria has entered the ring. Curators and owners of Melbourne City Council funded galleries will need to alert the council to potentially controversial pieces ahead of schedule for approval by ...

What’s wrong with being offended?

Tuesday, August 26th, 2008

If Want Longer Lasting Sex on a billboard is confronting to you, or you support the ASB's call to remove the Advanced Medical Institute's ads, ask yourself what's wrong with being offended? I was discussing the billboards on Aussie tech forum Overclockers today and was surprised at the number of people ...

Longer Lasting Sex billboards sexualise children and are confronting to Australians

Monday, August 25th, 2008

After 18 months of dismissing complaints against Advanced Medical Institute's giant yellow 'Want Longer Lasting Sex?' billboards, the Advertising Standards Bureau has backflipped and decided that the ad not only sexualises children, but is also confronting to a large section of the community. I wish I was joking. There's two major problems ...

Seven vetted Olympic ads

Monday, August 25th, 2008

Bob was kind enough to update us on the GetUp/Channel 7 controversy and it looks like they weren't the only organisation shafted by the TV network during their Olympics coverage. A Wilderness Society ad relating to the Western Australian election wouldn't be run 'until network bosses had seen it.' SMH writes: "Channel ...

Anna Bligh uses Attorney-General, police to censor Wicked Vans

Saturday, August 23rd, 2008

Could there be a bigger and more disgusting waste of Government resources: QLD Premier Anna Bligh has sicked her dogs, the State's Attorney-General and Police service, onto Wicked rental vans for what's been described as a 'highly offensive' slogan. According to the Cairns Post, a Cairn's resident complained about one of ...

Playing the censor: Would you ban this band’s ‘violent’ photos?

Thursday, August 21st, 2008

[caption id="attachment_300" align="aligncenter" width="480" caption="MySpace deemed this promotional photograph for band Oceano suitable, but shots containing simulated violence were promptly removed from the social networking site."][/caption] MySpace said this band's promo shoot (Click to see the photos - Not Safe For Work) was 'too violent' and promptly removed the offending photographs ...