South Australian Attorney General Michael Atkinson, last seen around these parts supporting a law that banned anonymous political commentary during election season (though he later said he’d repeal it after the election), is apparently now taking on video gamers. Slashdot points us to the news that Atkinson has claimed that video gamers are a threat to his family, after he found a note from a video gamer left on his doorstep:
“I feel that my family and I are more at risk from gamers than we are from the outlaw motorcycle gangs who also hate me and are running a candidate against me… The outlaw motorcycle gangs haven’t been hanging around my doorstop at 2am. A gamer has.”
I like how he automatically lumps all video gamers together into a single group because one gamer left him a note. Atkinson appears to have a way with words — including those against both bikers and video gamers. In the past he was forced to apologize after falsely suggesting that a group of motorcycle gang members had used a local park to “cook a cat for human consumption”. Turns out it wasn’t true: “The animal was not a cat, the incident happened at another location and bikies weren’t involved.” So, he’s good with the details, it seems.
The specific issue when it comes to video gamers is that Atkinson has been an adamant opponent to allowing any sort of “adult” or “mature” rating for video games. As you may or may not know, Australia censors video games, and will simply not allow games they don’t feel are appropriate for those under the age of 18. Yes, if you’re an adult and make the conscious choice that you want to play a violent video game, you are legally out of luck in Australia.
At times, Atkinson has supported this position to ridiculous levels. When the football video game “Blitz: The League” was banned from Australia, Atkinson supported this because one option in the game was that a player could take performance enhancing drugs, and apparently, he prefers to keep reality out of video games. When asked by a constituent why he wouldn’t support a mature rating for adult video gamers who want to play such games, his response was quite dismissive:
“I think you will find this issue has little traction with my constituents who are more concerned with real-life issues than home entertainment in imaginary worlds.”
And now he’s claiming that video gamers are a threat to his family? I think the person dealing with the “imaginary worlds” might be Mr. Atkinson.
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