click here for full image

Video game publishers and retailers might face with the enormous amount of fines in Australia if the online role playing games they sold don't have age classifications. Tony Kelly, spokesman for NSW Police Minister, urged members of the community to contact local police if they saw retailers selling computer games illegally. (Via SMH)

Though age classification has been widely used in video games, there are scores of online games didn't have been classification, including the most popular MMORPG World of Warcraft, Age of Conan, Warhammer Online and Pirates of the Burning Sea.

The folks on NSW Attorney-General believe that there is no legal loophole in the NSW Classification Enforcement Act. They think enforcement of the act is the responsibility of police and penalties for breaking these laws ranged from 1100 to 11,000 dollars for individuals and/or 12 months' imprisonment. For corporations the fines were approximately double.

There are some dissenting voices that the online games without age classifications were not legal loophole. Ron Curry, chief executive of games industry body the Interactive Entertainment Association of Australia pointed out that the issue was centred on how one defined the term "computer game".

"There are different classification requirements for games depending on how they are accessed by consumers. For instance, for a game sold off the shelf, where the media material is stored on a disk in the package, the classification requirements are straight forward and you will see the classification label on the box," he said.

"However, in some instances the box sold in a retail outlet contains an access key to the game which can only be accessed online. If such a game is hosted locally it falls under the jurisdiction of the Broadcasting Services Act, but if it is hosted internationally, it's classified in the country that hosts the game, rather than in Australia."