Earlier this week, online (gaming and entertainment) news outlet Kotaku named Collective Shout’s submission to the review of Australian Classification laws one of the review’s “most important submissions”. Collective Shout was listed among other organisations and corporates that Kotaku called “main players” in the review, including the Australian Council on Children and the Media, Google, Disney and Netflix.

Kotaku cited our recommendations, including our push for an urgent investigation ‘into the Classification Board assigning M or MA15+ ratings to anime and manga genres featuring Child Sexual Abuse Material contrary to Australian law’. 

In our submission we highlighted 

• the need for an evidence-based approach informed by research that demonstrates the harms of sexual objectification;
• pornography should no longer be treated by default as ‘adult content’, but as commercialised sexual exploitation; 
• reliance on parents to control what their children access is unrealistic;
• child and youth development experts who can advise on the ‘possible impact of content with sexualised content or messaging’ should be included in the new regulatory process.

We warned against a self-regulated model, using the failures of the self-regulated advertising industry and its overseeing body, Ad Standards, to uphold community standards and the industry’s Code of Ethics to emphasise the need for an overseer which has powers to enforce rulings. 

Read our full submission here.

See also:

Senator calls for ban on child sexual abuse manga and anime

Classification Board approves movies depicting child rape - Collective Shout calls on Communications Minister Fletcher to urgently intervene