Markings for content that must be classified

8.54 The primary purpose of requiring some content to be classified is to provide people with information or warnings to help guide their choice of entertainment. Classification markings and consumer advice are the primary methods of communicating that information.^[54]

8.55 Currently, classification symbols or markings must usually be displayed on packaging and advertisements for submittable publications, films and computer games.^[55] Where and how these markings must be displayed is determined by legislative instruments.^[56] The objective of the Classification (Markings for Films and Computer Games) Determination 2007 (Cth) is to ‘ensure that consumers have ready access to clear classification information to inform their choices about films and computer games’.^[57] The legislative instruments prescribe how the markings must be shown in some detail.

8.56 For classified television content, the markings requirements are prescribed in industry codes, approved by the ACMA. For example, the code for commercial free-to-air television provides that for any program required to be classified:

an appropriate classification symbol of at least 32 television lines in height, in a readily legible typeface, must be displayed for at least 3 seconds at the following times: as close as practicable to the program’s start; as soon as practicable after each break; … in any promotion for the program.^[58]

8.57 The ALRC agrees that it is important that the packaging of classified content and advertising for classified content should display classification markings, and that these markings should be as clear and consistent as possible. Content providers should not be free to mark their product in whichever way they please.

8.58 However, content and advertising is now delivered in so many different ways—on various platforms or devices and through various websites, applications and computer programs—that markings rules may be better placed in industry codes. Such codes can be more flexible and informed by industry and recent technology developments. Accordingly, the ALRC proposes that the Classification of Media Content Act contain a high-level principled rule concerning the display of classification markings. The detail of how and where such markings should be displayed—where this detail is necessary—should be in industry codes.