Serrels from Kotaku was pounding the floor at Game-tech yesterday, and had a chat to the Assistant Secretary from the Classifications Operations Branch, Jane Fitzgerald, about the difficulties in regulating half a million apps on the app store. Turns out the idea of self-regulation for classification isn’t too far fetched.
Later during the presentation, Jane was asked about the possibilities of industry self regulation when it comes to apps, and video games in general.
“I imagine it will be given real and serious consideration by the ALRC,” she claimed. “You have analogous models in relation to broadcasting, in that there are codes of practice that broadcasters must comply with. If they don’t conform a member of the public is allowed to complain. So it’s a complaints driven process.
“I imagine that the ALRC will look at those types of models, and I know that there are a number of large players who are pushing for that sort of approach.”
It will definitely take a while to reach that stage, but with hundreds of thousands of mobile apps being launched every year, logistically the current system simply can’t support it.
[Kotaku]