Who plays computer games?
Adults, as well as children, play computer games. In their early/mid 1990s drive to protect children from the alleged dangers of computer games, Australian politicians gave very little recognition to the fact that a significant minority, if not a majority, of players were, in fact, adults. At no point during the initial panic over computer games did anyone suggest that this form of entertainment adversely affected adults. With very few exceptions, the automatic assumption was made that children were the exclusive players of computer games. For example, during discussion of Queensland’s Classification Bill in 1995, Deputy Premier Tom Burns recognised that some adults had “genuine civil liberties concerns” over the decision to ban games of an “R” level and above, but he believed in taking extra caution as computer games had “particular appeal to children”. This degree of caution was such that he believed “…research is needed to ensure that any future decisions in this area are based on
