tag:theconversation.com,2011:/ca-fr/topics/classification-209/articlesClassification – La Conversation2023-12-18T16:17:09Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2192672023-12-18T16:17:09Z2023-12-18T16:17:09ZHow a Victorian trip to Palestine spurred modern ornithology – and left it with imperial baggage<p>Palestine’s natural splendour offered a landscape ripe for scientific “discovery”, description and expropriation by European imperial powers in the 19th century. And in the 1860s an English vicar named <a href="https://www.sacristy.co.uk/books/history/henry-baker-tristram-ornithology#">Henry Baker Tristram</a> claimed its birds. </p>
<p>Tristram was a co-founder of <a href="https://bou.org.uk/about-the-bou/">Ibis</a>, the ornithology journal published since 1859 by the British Ornithologists’ Union. His articles on Palestinian ornithology began with the first issue, when he contributed a list of birds he’d collected during a brief visit there the previous year. The list included a species previously unknown to western science, which was named in his honour as Tristram’s grackle (now more commonly known as Tristram’s <a href="https://ebird.org/species/trista1?siteLanguage=en_GB">starling</a>). </p>
<p>Tristram made a major contribution to the study of birds. At that time ornithology reflected imperial priorities and was concerned with collecting, describing and mapping. His observations of Palestine’s birds, in particular, laid the groundwork for the modern ornithology of the area. </p>
<p>However, his exploits in Palestine, still honoured in the name “Tristram’s starling”, also show why honorific bird names like this have come under increasing <a href="https://americanornithology.org/about/english-bird-names-project/">scrutiny</a>. </p>
<p>Tristram returned to Palestine for a fuller investigation in 1864. He travelled south from Beirut with a group of fellow naturalists and a large baggage train. The account of his ten-month-long journey was published in 1865 as <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/The_Land_of_Israel.html?id=Qd8TAAAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y">The Land of Israel</a>. </p>
<p>This book, and the several <a href="https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupname?key=Tristram%2C%20H.%20B.%20%28Henry%20Baker%29%2C%201822-1906">others</a> he wrote about Palestine, formed part of a growing wave of popular tourist accounts of the Holy Land. They fed the interest and shaped the perceptions of British readers fascinated by the area’s historical and Biblical remnants, its living inhabitants, and the missionary efforts to achieve conversions to Christianity. </p>
<p>Unusually, Tristram and his companions travelled far off the well-beaten tourist and Christian pilgrimage routes throughout Palestine. The Land of Israel includes detailed descriptions of Palestine’s diverse ethnic groups, their domestic, religious, military and economic traditions and practices, and their relationships with one another. </p>
<h2>Imperialism</h2>
<p>Tristram’s descriptions of Palestine’s people in many ways reflected typical British imperial views of “natives”, not least in his use of the terms “childlike” and “savage”, and his comparison of Bedouins to “red Indians”. His racialising and religious views were also shaped by his inclinations as a natural historian – he categorised those he observed according to type, and deviation from type. </p>
<p>At best, his characterisations are paternalistic; at worst, deeply offensive. The terms “debased” and “degraded” repeat often. Of one group near Jericho he writes: “I never saw such vacant, sensual, and debased features in any group of human beings of the type and form of whites”. </p>
<p>Of some Bedouin further south, he observes that “they were all decidedly of the Semitic type, and, excepting the colour and the smell, had nothing of the negro about them. They must, however, be far inferior to the races they have supplanted.”</p>
<p>Occasionally, he acknowledges Ottoman oppression and neglect as the cause of poverty, but in most cases links it to “Moslem fanaticism” and “Oriental indolence”. Although there are exceptions, Muslim settlements and their inhabitants are almost invariably “filthy”, “squalid” and “miserable”. </p>
<p>Of religious sites, he notes many instances of churches which have been “perverted” into mosques. One of his most offensive observations is of a Bedouin sheikh, Abu Dahuk: “like all his followers, he is very dark – not so black as the commonalty, but of a deep olive brown. This may partly arise from the habit of these people, who never wash. They occasionally take off their clothes, search them, slaughter their thousands, and air themselves, but never apply water to their persons”. The odour, he remarks, “is unendurable”.</p>
<p>Conversion to Christianity appeared to redeem this degradation. In the Galilee he notes: “Christianity had here, as elsewhere, stamped the place and its substantial houses with a neatness and cleanliness to which the best of Moslem villages are strangers”. </p>
<p>Conversion also seemed to him to transform racial attributes. Of two Protestant converts he observes that “so much had religion and education elevated them, that they seemed of a different race from those around them”. Among Bethlehem’s Christians, he particularly admires “the handsome faces of the men and women, and the wondrous beauty of the children, so fair and European-like”. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="An old brown book cover with the words The Land of Israel." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566291/original/file-20231218-24-apod48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/566291/original/file-20231218-24-apod48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=846&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566291/original/file-20231218-24-apod48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=846&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566291/original/file-20231218-24-apod48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=846&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566291/original/file-20231218-24-apod48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1063&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566291/original/file-20231218-24-apod48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1063&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/566291/original/file-20231218-24-apod48.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1063&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The cover of Land of Israel 1872 edition.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jasmine Donahaye</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Tristram describes Jewish ethnicity in typical missionary terms. The Jews were a “decayed and scattered people”, with “musty and crumbling learning”. At a Protestant missionary tent in Tiberias he notes that “the Polish Jews, very numerous here, were willing to listen … but the native Jews, with whom were mingled a few Moslems, were occasionally very violent in their expressions”. The Jews, he concludes, “are a stiff-necked race”. </p>
<p>During his months in Palestine in 1864, Tristram shot hundreds of birds for his collection, and shot many more during subsequent visits. His surviving collection in the Liverpool World Museum includes, among others, the original 1858 <a href="https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/stories/whats-type-guide-type-specimens">type specimens</a> of Tristram’s grackle, and 17 Palestine sunbird skins.</p>
<p>Tristram depended on many people – servants, dragomen, muleteers, cooks, collectors and guards – for their expertise, labour and protection, and sometimes even for <a href="https://newwelshreview.com/book/birdsplaining-a-natural-history-by-jasmine-donahaye">saving his life</a>. He also depended on them for help with obtaining specimens. But for that help with collecting he only names one person: “Gemil, with a little training,” he writes, “would soon have made a first-rate collector.”</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-dozens-of-north-american-bird-species-are-getting-new-names-every-name-tells-a-story-217886">Why dozens of North American bird species are getting new names: Every name tells a story</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Those British imperial values that coloured Tristram’s view of Palestine’s people enabled him to name and claim its natural resources for western science, and for personal glory. They also gave him licence to propose that the land itself should be claimed: “Either an European protectorate or union with Egypt seems requisite to save Palestine from gradual dissolution,” he remarked, “unless, which seems hopeless, the Arabs can be induced to cultivate the sod.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219267/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jasmine Donahaye does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>H.B. Tristram was a Victorian clergyman and ornithologist who categorised a list of birds he’d found in Palestine.Jasmine Donahaye, Professor in English Literature and Creative Writing, Swansea UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2167012023-12-04T13:27:46Z2023-12-04T13:27:46ZNew England stone walls lie at the intersection of history, archaeology, ecology and geoscience, and deserve a science of their own<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562785/original/file-20231130-25-3xzmdr.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=16%2C0%2C1800%2C1191&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A typical New England stone wall in Hebron, Conn.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Robert M. Thorson</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The abandoned fieldstone walls of New England are every bit as <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/how-stone-walls-became-a-signature-landform-of-new-england-180983250/">iconic to the region</a> as lobster pots, town greens, sap buckets and fall foliage. They seem to be everywhere – a latticework of dry, lichen-crusted stone ridges separating a patchwork of otherwise moist soils.</p>
<p>Stone walls can be found here and there in other states, but only in New England are they nearly ubiquitous. That’s due to a regionally unique combination of hard crystalline bedrock, glacial soils and farms with patchworks of small land parcels. </p>
<p>Nearly all were built by European settlers and their draft animals, who scuttled glacial stones from agricultural fields and pastures outward to fencelines and boundaries, then tossed or stacked them as lines. Though the <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/A_Long_Deep_Furrow.html?id=Hn-5AAAAIAAJ">oldest walls</a> date to 1607, most were built in the agrarian century between the American Revolution and the cultural shift toward cities and industry after the Civil War. </p>
<p>The mass of stone that farmers moved in that century staggers the mind – an estimated <a href="https://wwnorton.com/books/Sermons-in-Stone/null">240,000 miles (400,000 kilometers)</a> of barricades, most stacked thigh-high and similarly wide. That’s long enough to wrap our planet 10 times at the equator, or to reach the Moon on its closest approach to Earth.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/BwPUy6kjISv/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link\u0026igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p>Natural scientists have been working to quantify this phenomenon, which is larger in volume than the Great Wall of China, Hadrian’s Wall in Britain and the Egyptian pyramids at Giza combined. This work began in 1870 and generated the U.S. government’s 1872 <a href="https://www.primaryresearch.org/stonewalls/fencesurvey.pdf">Census of Fences</a>. Today, scientists are using <a href="https://stonewall.uconn.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/534/2014/03/Johnson-and-Ouimet-2014-Rediscovering-the-lost-archaeological-landscape-of-southern-New-England-using-airborne-LiDAR.pdf">a technique called LiDAR</a>, or light detection and ranging, to <a href="https://granit.unh.edu/pages/nh-stone-walls">measure and map</a> stone walls across New England.</p>
<p>Being <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ElExWMsAAAAJ&hl=en">a geologist</a>, I’m interested in walls as landforms that are distinctive to the region, created during the lead-up to the <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/07/11/1187125012/anthropocene-crawford-lake-canada-beginning">Anthropocene</a> epoch – a time when human agency dominates all others. I’ve written about the <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/stone-by-stone-9780802776877/">history of stone walls</a> and how to <a href="https://stonewall.uconn.edu/books-2/exploring-stone-walls/">interpret them in the field</a>, and developed the <a href="https://stonewall.uconn.edu/about-swi/mission-and-purpose/">Stone Wall Initiative</a> to draw public attention to their importance in New England. Now, I’m working with students and colleagues to develop a formal interdisciplinary science of stone walls that will help researchers understand and preserve them.</p>
<h2>Dens and pathways</h2>
<p>My brother-in-law enjoys his backyard wall in Lee, New Hampshire, mainly for its aesthetic, historic and literary ambiance. The wild things living in his neighborhood depend on it as unique habitat. </p>
<p>To lichens and moss, the wall’s dry stones are surfaces where plants can’t compete. For plants, such walls are edges that separate patches of ground into zones that are sunny or shady, windward or leeward, uphill or downhill, wetter or drier. Stone walls offer small mammals porous volumes in which to live their furtive lives. Predators use the walls as hunting blinds and travel corridors.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/CdEgCxhvYBv/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p>Just for fun, my brother-in-law installed a motion-activated, infrared video camera on his backyard wall to see who was using the wall and how. On June 21, 2023, the summer solstice, he <a href="https://stonewall.uconn.edu/author/rmt02003/">filmed a bobcat (<em>Lynx rufus</em>)</a> hiding behind it and then using it as an elevated pathway.</p>
<p>The more we researchers learn about New England’s abandoned stone walls, the more we realize that they transcend and obliterate the narrow treatments of our scholarly disciplines. These archaeological artifacts are so ubiquitous that they have become a geological landform that in turn creates a novel ecological habitat. These walls also are literary icons, historic sites and spiritual oracles, as Robert Frost recognized when he penned “<a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44266/mending-wall">Mending Wall</a>,” on an <a href="https://www.robertfrostfarm.org/">old farm</a> in Derry, New Hampshire. </p>
<p>But despite their importance, never have the stone walls of New England been technically defined, classified and given a common terminology in a peer-reviewed journal. They fell, it seems, through disciplinary cracks. </p>
<p>My initial step toward changing this situation was writing a mini-monograph in 2023 for the journal Historical Archaeology on the “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s41636-023-00432-0">Taxonomy and Nomenclature for the Stone Domain in New England</a>.” Its goal is to coalesce the study of these stone walls into an interdisciplinary science by following the precedents of other disciplines – most notably, the 18th-century <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/taxonomy">Linnaean taxonomy</a> that biologists still use today. Here’s how that approach works:</p>
<h2>Defining and classifying</h2>
<p>Understanding the stone walls of greater New England scientifically requires starting with a technical definition that is based on field criteria rather than tradition or inference. There are many kinds of historical stone features – waste piles, cairns, scatters, lines, kilns, gravestones, cobbles, patios and more. The goal is to isolate walls as a set of objects within this larger domain. </p>
<p>For example, a definition can require that each wall be composed of stone; composed of particles, rather than one enormous slab; continuous; elongated; and sufficiently high. Without such explicit criteria, one person’s wall is another’s elongated pile, and one person’s waste heap is another’s <a href="https://www.arcadiapublishing.com/products/9781634990493">sacred site</a>.</p>
<p>It’s nice when descriptions and classifications can be loose and flexible, as with genres of music, styles of fashion, and disciplines within academia. These are typologies, bins, pigeonholes. But to make scientific sense of the world, researchers need to convert descriptions into precise definitions and use them in binary, rule-driven classifications. <a href="https://www.britannica.com/search?query=taxonomy">These are taxonomies</a>.</p>
<p>Every field of science requires its own language. Chemists group <a href="https://sciencenotes.org/periodic-table-groups-and-periods/">elements with similar properties</a>, like halogens and noble gases. Biologists divide life forms into <a href="https://kids.britannica.com/students/article/biological-classification/611149">domains, kingdoms, phyla and smaller groups</a> with shared characteristics. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562817/original/file-20231130-23-c9e5wt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Chart showing biological classification of domestic dogs and the larger biological groups to which they belong." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562817/original/file-20231130-23-c9e5wt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/562817/original/file-20231130-23-c9e5wt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=605&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562817/original/file-20231130-23-c9e5wt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=605&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562817/original/file-20231130-23-c9e5wt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=605&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562817/original/file-20231130-23-c9e5wt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=761&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562817/original/file-20231130-23-c9e5wt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=761&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/562817/original/file-20231130-23-c9e5wt.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=761&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This graphic shows how biologists use taxonomy to name, describe and classify one subspecies, domesticated dogs (<em>Canis lupus familiaris</em>), and relate that subspecies to larger groups such as carnivores, mammals and animals.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/75/Figure_20_01_05.png">CNX Open Stax/Wikipedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Terms in stone wall science involve the size, shape, composition, source and arrangement of stones; the vertical and horizontal structures of tiers, courses and terminations; and their topographic settings on the landscape. </p>
<p>Stone wall classification begins with the stone domain – the entire constellation of historical stone objects. From there, we carve out a distinct class of stone walls that’s separate from other rock assemblies, like concentrations and lines, as well as notable individual stones, like <a href="https://seeplymouth.com/listing/plymouth-rock/">Plymouth Rock</a>. Then, using diagnostic criteria, we divide the class walls into five families – free-standing, flanking, supporting, enclosing and blocking – and break them down further into types, subtypes and variants within <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s41636-023-00432-0">a new taxonomy</a>. </p>
<h2>What stone walls can tell us</h2>
<p>At this stage, my students, colleagues and I are just beginning to pair stone wall science with LiDAR techniques at the scale of villages. Tantalizing spatial patterns are emerging. </p>
<p>Different types of walls occur in predictable arrangements. For example, we commonly find well-built double walls near cellar holes, with simpler single walls at further distance and waste piles beyond those. Such patterns provide an independent source of primary documentary evidence that researchers can use to interpret past cultural behaviors, above and beyond the written documents of history and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Small_Things_Forgotten">much smaller artifacts</a> of excavation-based archaeology. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4YAIq-Whttg?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Many of New England’s forests stand on land that used to be family farms. Stone walls in these forests mark former boundaries.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Such spatial patterns can also be used for ecological interpretations. For example, a bobcat is more likely to hunt along a normal single wall than other subtypes because it has the required stability and height to support the cat and sufficient void space for prey to live in. </p>
<p>These structures – these elevated drylands – are in some ways analogous to the region’s wetlands, which also are landforms that farmers created or <a href="https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/books/book/751/chapter-abstract/3902909/Colonial-impacts-to-wetlands-in-Lebanon?redirectedFrom=fulltext">significantly modified</a> as they settled the land in the 18th and 19th centuries. However, since the 1990s, wetlands have earned a <a href="https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/4766/wetlands-characteristics-and-boundaries">robust science</a>, a solid <a href="https://www.epa.gov/wetlands">legal framework</a> and excellent <a href="https://www.nawm.org/">management protocols</a>. </p>
<p>In my view, the time has come to do the same for New England’s stone walls. These dryland structures are so ubiquitous, massive and unique relative to other habitats that it’s high time for natural scientists to give them the respect they deserve.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216701/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robert M. Thorson created and coordinates the Stone Wall Initiative, an online resource on the historic stone walls of New England. He is an advocate for their conservation and management, and a frequent public speaker on this topic for land trusts, historical societies, environmental non-profits, public libraries, and “friends of…” organizations. </span></em></p>New England has thousands of miles of stone walls. A geoscientist explains why analyzing them scientifically is a solid step toward preserving themRobert M. Thorson, Professor of Earth Science, University of ConnecticutLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2160042023-11-13T00:12:23Z2023-11-13T00:12:23ZAustralia’s media classification system is no help to parents and carers. It needs a grounding in evidence<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/557940/original/file-20231107-29-5gynl3.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C5%2C3964%2C1988&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/classic-vintage-retro-style-old-television-614643728">Commonwealth of Australia/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the era of proliferating streaming platforms, choosing what to watch on family movie night can be hard.</p>
<p>Parents have a greater need than ever for good advice to help them narrow down the options, and they should be able to turn to the government’s classification system. </p>
<p>When they do, they will usually trust that if something is rated G or PG, it’s suitable for young children. </p>
<p>You might be surprised to learn, then, the current media classification system has no basis in evidence about children’s developmental needs.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/episode-choose-your-story-the-inappropriate-game-your-kids-have-probably-played-127445">Episode – Choose Your Story: the inappropriate game your kids have probably played</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Where did classifications come from?</h2>
<p>Australia’s National Classification Scheme for films, games and publications was established in 1995. The Commonwealth and the states and territories agreed to replace what was then known as the “censorship” system. </p>
<p>The scheme classifies media content based on the perceived impact (very mild, mild, moderate, and so on) of elements such as violence, sex, and themes related to social issues including crime, racism and suicide. </p>
<p>The ratings aim to give effect to four principles listed in the <a href="https://www.classification.gov.au/about-us/legislation">National Classification Code</a>. One of those is that “minors should be protected from material likely to harm or disturb them”.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2D8qrfgcTjs?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">This film ratings promo was on many VHS and DVDs in Australia in the 2000s.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Initially there was no R18+ classification for games. </p>
<p>After <a href="https://theconversation.com/r18-classification-for-videogames-the-quest-continues-2835">intense debate</a> in the late 2000s, the adults-only classification was introduced in 2013.</p>
<h2>Flawed attempts at reform</h2>
<p>The Commonwealth referred classification law to the Australian Law Reform Commission for review in 2011. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.alrc.gov.au/inquiry/national-classification-scheme-review/">2012 report</a> revealed little about the efficacy of the scheme for families. </p>
<p>The review led to <a href="https://www.alrc.gov.au/inquiry/national-classification-scheme-review/implementation-13/">very few changes</a>. None were of any real significance for consumers.</p>
<p>Recommendations from the <a href="https://www.infrastructure.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/review-of-australian-classification-regulation--may2020.pdf">latest review</a> of the scheme were submitted to the Morrison government in 2020. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/there-are-no-age-restrictions-for-gambling-in-video-games-despite-potential-risks-to-children-96115">There are no age restrictions for gambling in video games, despite potential risks to children</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>There was no action on those until the Albanese government, in April 2023, announced a couple of fairly significant changes, such as <a href="https://minister.infrastructure.gov.au/rowland/media-release/albanese-government-outlines-key-reforms-national-classification-scheme">mandatory minimum classifications</a> for gambling-related content.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, however, useful information for families is still hard to come by. </p>
<h2>Vague terms not based in fact</h2>
<p>The current system is based entirely on “impact”, which is undefined. </p>
<p>The efficacy of the system in protecting children from harm or disturbance is diminished because it’s not based on evidence of children’s developmental needs. </p>
<p>For example, there is strong evidence that scary content <a href="https://smallscreen.org.au/september-2023-editorial/">poses risks</a> for children’s mental wellbeing.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/557946/original/file-20231107-17-2a7znm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A child plays a video game wearing headphones" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/557946/original/file-20231107-17-2a7znm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/557946/original/file-20231107-17-2a7znm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/557946/original/file-20231107-17-2a7znm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/557946/original/file-20231107-17-2a7znm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/557946/original/file-20231107-17-2a7znm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/557946/original/file-20231107-17-2a7znm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/557946/original/file-20231107-17-2a7znm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">R18+ classifications were brought in for video games in 2013.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/little-boy-playing-video-game-dark-1587426013">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But unless it’s actually violent (which it isn’t always), you have to hope it will be picked up under the “themes”. </p>
<p>If we had an evidence-based system, scariness would be established as a separate criterion during the classification process.</p>
<p>Regarding violent content, <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1529-1006.2003.pspi_1433.x">there is evidence</a> as to which kinds pose greater risks than others.</p>
<p>But <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13218719.2021.1904446">a study</a> of the Classification Review Board’s thought processes around violence shows these are often at odds with the evidence.</p>
<p>For example, they tend to downplay “superhero violence”. </p>
<p>However, <a href="https://doi.org/10.12987/yale/9780300218879.001.0001">research</a> shows appealing perpetrators whose violence is justified are more likely to foster an attitude in viewers that violence is an appropriate way to resolve conflict.</p>
<p>The most recent review of the scheme recognised the need for an evidence-based system, but stopped short of recommending it. </p>
<h2>Overhaul needed to better guide parents</h2>
<p>Parents need reliable information to judge the suitability of content for children of different ages. </p>
<p>The G and PG ratings, for example, effectively lump everyone under 15 into a single age group. This means they don’t provide any guidance about whether or not content is suitable for any particular age group under that threshold. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.infrastructure.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/review-of-australian-classification-regulation--may2020.pdf">2020 review</a> suggested an additional category (PG13) could be appropriate. </p>
<p>This may help address the vast range of content lumped in the current PG category, but only if it was based on evidence about the developmental needs of children under 13. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/557944/original/file-20231107-22-2d6qf0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A mother, father and young boy sit on the couch eating popcorn" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/557944/original/file-20231107-22-2d6qf0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/557944/original/file-20231107-22-2d6qf0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/557944/original/file-20231107-22-2d6qf0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/557944/original/file-20231107-22-2d6qf0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/557944/original/file-20231107-22-2d6qf0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/557944/original/file-20231107-22-2d6qf0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/557944/original/file-20231107-22-2d6qf0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Parents should have more of a say to make the Australian classification system more user-friendly.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/family-leisure-people-concept-happy-smiling-1658483641">Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>And even if PG13 was introduced, the system would still fail to address the differing developmental stages of children aged 1 to 12 years.</p>
<p>An overhaul of the system is needed, including a move away from “impact” to a test based on children’s developmental needs.</p>
<p>This could help support parents to make well-informed decisions for their children. The Commonwealth is obliged to do this under article 18 of the UN’s <a href="https://www.unicef.org.au/united-nations-convention-on-the-rights-of-the-child">Convention on the Rights of the Child</a>.</p>
<p>Policy-makers should also be seeking the thoughts of parents, who ultimately interact with the system most. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.classification.gov.au/about-us/research-and-publications/classification-usage-and-attitudes-2022">Previous government research</a> hasn’t focused on parents enough.</p>
<p>A 2022 report found 74% broad agreement with the statement “classification categories do not need to change”. But participants, only 30% of whom were parents or carers, were not given an alternative model for comparison. </p>
<p>We cannot know what participants would have said if they had been asked to consider other options, such as an age-based set of categories.</p>
<p>Research we are currently undertaking fills this gap. </p>
<p><a href="https://unisasurveys.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_cV1sFcIAgFXa1gy">Our survey</a> informs parents and carers about the current Australian system and asks them to rate content using an evidence-informed framework.</p>
<p>It will provide important information about the usability of the scheme. Then, we can propose a model of classification that better reflects the needs of its primary users – one that is actually based on evidence.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216004/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Elizabeth Handsley is President of Children and Media Australia, the national peak non-profit organisation representing children's rights and interests as media users. In this capacity she made submissions and representations to the Stevens review of the National Classification Scheme. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Fae Heaselgrave is conducting research with Children and Media Australia about the usability of the Australian Classifications Scheme for parents and carers. </span></em></p>We’re all familiar with a green ‘G’ or a red ‘MA’ on a movie poster, but those ratings don’t have any basis in what we know about child development. They’d be much more useful for parents if they did.Elizabeth Handsley, Adjunct Professor of Law, Western Sydney UniversityFae Heaselgrave, Lecturer in Communication and Media, University of South AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1989172023-03-02T13:24:32Z2023-03-02T13:24:32ZOverclassification overkill: The US government is drowning in a sea of secrets<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/512717/original/file-20230228-16-ijampy.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=29%2C9%2C6628%2C4971&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Nearly 2,000 workers process tens of millions of classified documents every year in the U.S.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/simply-confidential-royalty-free-image/182416144?phrase=top%20secret&adppopup=true">wragg/E+/Getty images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The U.S. faces far more threats to its national security than from <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/02/03/what-is-chinese-spy-balloon-montana/">spy balloons</a> or classified documents discovered in <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2022/08/08/trump-fbi-maralago-raid/10272048002/">former</a> and <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/16/politics/biden-classified-docs-timeline/index.html">current</a> presidents’ homes. </p>
<p>About <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/americas-system-classified-documents-broken-rcna66106">50 million more threats</a> every year. That’s the estimated number of records annually classified as confidential, secret or top secret by the U.S. government. </p>
<p>The U.S. has an overclassification problem, which, experts say, ironically threatens the nation’s security.</p>
<p>Those in the intelligence field, along with at least eight special commissions through the decades, acknowledge the security risk of <a href="https://www.archives.gov/files/isoo/reports/isoo-2021-annual-report-to-the-president-final.pdf">nearly 2,000 workers</a> processing <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/americas-system-classified-documents-broken-rcna66106">tens of millions of classified records</a> each year, which could be viewed and potentially leaked or misplaced by more than <a href="https://sgp.fas.org/othergov/intel/clear-2019.pdf">4.2 million government employees and contractors</a> who have access to them. </p>
<p>I have seen the secrecy creep – more classification and more withholding of information by the government – growing for decades, as a scholar who studies freedom of information, as recent president of the <a href="https://www.nfoic.org/">National Freedom of Information Coalition</a> and as incoming director of the Brechner Freedom of Information Project at the University of Florida. Also, as a member of the <a href="https://www.archives.gov/ogis/foia-advisory-committee">Federal Freedom of Information Act Advisory Committee</a>, I see firsthand the struggles the U.S. faces in maintaining transparent, accountable government.</p>
<p>The classified federal records are made secret based on categories defined by the president <a href="https://www.archives.gov/about/laws/appendix/12958.html">through executive orders, not law</a>. These records can include just about anything a government employee deems confidential, secret, top secret, sensitive or restricted. </p>
<p>While classification is intended to <a href="https://www.archives.gov/guidance/classified-info-guidance">protect the national security of the nation</a> – such as weapons data, military plans and codes – often records with no direct connection to national security are hidden, including <a href="https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/special-exhibits/dubious-secrets">already published newspaper articles</a>, sometimes to prevent agency embarrassment or accountability.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/512722/original/file-20230228-4728-q97h47.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A large building at the top of wide stairs that has a facade featuring many columns." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/512722/original/file-20230228-4728-q97h47.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/512722/original/file-20230228-4728-q97h47.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512722/original/file-20230228-4728-q97h47.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512722/original/file-20230228-4728-q97h47.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512722/original/file-20230228-4728-q97h47.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512722/original/file-20230228-4728-q97h47.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512722/original/file-20230228-4728-q97h47.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The National Archives, pictured here, provides guidance to government agencies on document classification.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/man-walks-past-the-united-states-national-archives-building-news-photo/866602550?phrase=classified%20documents%20National%20Archives&adppopup=true">Mark Wilson/Getty Images North America</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Overclassification kills</h2>
<p>Experts and members of Congress acknowledge that 90% of classified records <a href="https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CHRG-108hhrg98291/html/CHRG-108hhrg98291.htm">do not need to be classified</a>.</p>
<p>J. William Leonard, former director of the <a href="https://www.archives.gov/isoo">Information Security Oversight Office</a>, which oversees the classification system, testified in 2016 before Congress that <a href="https://irp.fas.org/congress/2016_hr/overclass.pdf">overclassification is rampant</a> throughout federal government. </p>
<p>The 9/11 Commission concluded that <a href="https://govinfo.library.unt.edu/911/report/911Report.pdf">excessive classification inhibited</a> the ability of defense agencies to share critical files, contributing to the terrorists’ success in killing nearly 3,000 Americans. They said, “No one has to pay the long-term costs of overclassifying information, though these costs – even in literal financial terms – are substantial.”</p>
<p>Former President Barack Obama noted the problem in a <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/transcript/exclusive-president-barack-obama-on-fox-news-sunday">2016 Fox News interview</a>:</p>
<p>“There’s classified,” he said, “and then there’s ‘classified.’ There’s stuff that is really top secret top secret, and there’s stuff that is being presented to the president or the secretary of state that you might not want on the transom or going out over the wire but is basically stuff that you could get in open source.” </p>
<p>Overclassification leads to more leaking of dangerous information, <a href="https://www.archives.gov/files/declassification/pidb/recommendations/pidb-vision-for-digital-age-may-2020.pdf">according to the Public Interest Declassification Board</a>, a congressional advisory group that recommends policies to the president on classification. </p>
<p>Overclassification impedes information-sharing by agencies and makes people trust the system less. Some government employees may even come to believe the system is too secretive. That “may encourage dangerous information leaks from within the government,” <a href="https://www.archives.gov/files/declassification/pidb/recommendations/pidb-vision-for-digital-age-may-2020.pdf">stated the board’s 2020 report urging modernization of the system</a>. </p>
<h2>Founders started it</h2>
<p>Government secrecy started before the U.S. even had a government.</p>
<p>The Constitutional Convention in 1787 was held in secret, and the Senate debated the Bill of Rights behind closed doors in 1791. Congress <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S0740-624X(03)00055-8">didn’t print its approved laws</a> for the public until 1795 – nearly two decades after the founding of the United States and six years after the Constitution’s ratification.</p>
<p>From the country’s earliest days, presidents <a href="https://doi.org/10.1207/S15326926CLP0701_03">sought to restrict information from the public</a> – and even from Congress. George Washington kept secret his treaty communications with Britain in 1795, and John Adams hid treaty negotiations with France in 1798, all in the name of national security.</p>
<p>Franklin D. Roosevelt was the first president to <a href="https://irp.fas.org/offdocs/eo/eo-8381.htm">officially classify documents</a>. He issued Executive Order 8381 in 1940 to keep some military records hidden. Succeeding presidents followed suit, greatly expanding secrecy through the decades. The <a href="https://www.archives.gov/isoo/policy-documents/cnsi-eo.html">most recent order</a>, issued by Barack Obama in 2009, stands today.</p>
<h2>Santa and Conan</h2>
<p>Classification has become so prevalent that the outcomes are sometimes meaningless, sometimes nefarious and sometimes absurd. </p>
<p>Lauren Harper, director of public policy and open government affairs for the <a href="https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/">National Security Archive</a>, a nonprofit that collects federal records for historians, notes some of the worst examples of overclassification:</p>
<p>• The CIA <a href="https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB90/index.htm#8">labeled as confidential</a> a weekly terrorism situation report on Dec. 17, 1974, stating, “A new organization of uncertain makeup, using the name ‘Group of the Martyr Ebenezer Scrooge,’ plans to sabotage the annual courier flight of the Government of the North Pole. …” The memo, a CIA inside-office joke, wasn’t made public until 1999.</p>
<p>• A 1975 government biographical dossier on former Chilean Gen. Augusto Pinochet, kept secret on national security grounds, stated that the dictator’s favorite liquor was “<a href="https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB90/index2.htm">scotch and pisco sours</a>.”</p>
<p>• The government argued that records documenting the sex of <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/g5py3j/conan-dog-sex-national-security-secret">Conan the dog</a>, which participated in the 2019 raid to kill Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, were a national security secret. </p>
<p>• <a href="https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/cuba/2016-10-31/cia-releases-controversial-bay-pigs-history">Historical documents about the Bay of Pigs</a> were released in 2016 after decades of the CIA arguing the information would “confuse the public.” In actuality, they were covering up embarrassing internal political bickering.</p>
<p>Sometimes records are kept secret to avoid criticism, such as the documents hidden by the George W. Bush administration to cover up <a href="https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/torture_archive/comparison.htm">instructions for effective torture</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/512721/original/file-20230228-2171-bipf7v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="The cover page of a report titled 'Official history of the Bay of Pigs operation.'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/512721/original/file-20230228-2171-bipf7v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/512721/original/file-20230228-2171-bipf7v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=778&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512721/original/file-20230228-2171-bipf7v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=778&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512721/original/file-20230228-2171-bipf7v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=778&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512721/original/file-20230228-2171-bipf7v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=978&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512721/original/file-20230228-2171-bipf7v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=978&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/512721/original/file-20230228-2171-bipf7v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=978&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A page from a 1984 CIA report that the agency refused to release for decades because it would ‘confuse the public.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://nsarchive.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/cia-bay-of-pigs-v51.pdf">National Security Archive</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Transparency vs. secrecy</h2>
<p>Many recommendations to diminish overclassification have been offered by experts and special commissions over the decades, with little progress. Federal agencies push back against transparency, presidents defer to secrecy and the inertia of federal bureaucracy favors the status quo. But perhaps bipartisan cooperation in Congress can get somewhere on several fronts.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.archives.gov/files/isoo/reports/isoo-2021-annual-report-to-the-president-final.pdf">Legislators could simplify the levels of classification</a>, focusing only on what specific information would truly harm national security and align the <a href="https://www.archives.gov/files/declassification/pidb/recommendations/transforming-classification.pdf">level of protection with the level of harm</a>. </p>
<p>Significantly increased funding would help modernize the operations of the <a href="https://www.archives.gov/">National Archives and Records Administration</a>, which oversees classification efforts and is hamstrung by old technology in a digitized world. The agency’s annual budget has <a href="https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/foia-audit/foia/2022-03-11/us-national-archives-nara-budget-30-year-flatline">flatlined at about US$320 million</a> for the past three decades. Congress could <a href="https://www.archives.gov/files/declassification/pidb/recommendations/pidb-vision-for-digital-age-may-2020.pdf">invest in more sophisticated technology</a>, such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, to better identify records that should be classified and those that shouldn’t be classified. <a href="https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3481045">New research</a> indicates that machine learning can save government employees time in identifying parts of records that should be kept secret.</p>
<p>Finally, classifications can be hit and miss, and agencies should be required to accurately delineate what is classified and what isn’t and label the classified parts of records accurately, as recommended last year by the <a href="https://www.archives.gov/ogis/foia-advisory-committee">Federal FOIA Advisory Committee</a>.</p>
<p>Some secrets are necessary, and I believe the classification system can be strengthened, for the good of national security and the ability of citizens to know what their government is up to. Sometimes, less secrecy brings more safety.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/198917/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Cuillier is incoming director of the Brechner Freedom of Information Project at the University of Florida and recent president of the National Freedom of Information Coalition, a nonprofit that supports state coalitions for open government. He has been commissioned by the Knight Foundation for research on freedom of information. He is founding editor of the Journal of Civic Information. He is currently a member of the Federal Freedom of Information Act Advisory Committee under the National Archives and Records Administration. He also has served as Freedom of Information Committee chair and national president of the Society of Professional Journalists, which has advocated for greater transparency in government.</span></em></p>The US has an overclassification problem, which includes classifying documents about Santa Claus.David Cuillier, Associate Professor, School of Journalism, University of ArizonaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1715692021-11-22T22:10:43Z2021-11-22T22:10:43ZWhat’s in a name? When it comes to human fossils, it’s complicated<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/432022/original/file-20211115-13-v8i0ut.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3400%2C3393&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">_Homo bodoensis_ was named after a skull discovered almost 50 years ago in Ethiopia.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Ettore Mazza)</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Homo bodoensis</em> is the new name given to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/evan.21929">a human ancestor who lived half a million years ago in Africa</a>. The species is named after <a href="https://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/human-fossils/fossils/bodo">a skull from Bodo D'ar, Ethiopia</a>.</p>
<p>The finding was made nearly 50 years ago, and it has been described by several different names over the decades. The new name is the result of a new reassessment of the fossil record. Species names are frequently revised thanks to the complicated nature of biological diversity and the rules constructed to categorize it. But when it comes to human ancestors, species names can carry emotional and political baggage, which the rules don’t easily account for. </p>
<p>Around 100,000 years ago, towards the later part of the Pleistocene epoch, modern humans shared the planet with several other human species. These included our closest relatives, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1706426114">the Neanderthals and Denisovans</a>. We all evolved from a distant relative called <em>Homo erectus</em>, and our lineages diverged about <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aaw1268">800,000 years ago</a>, in the Early Pleistocene. </p>
<p>The intervening time period — <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/chibanian-age-earths-newly-named-geological-period-180974224/">known as the Middle Pleistocene or Chibanian Age</a> — is particularly important because this is when our species, <em>Homo sapiens</em>, emerged.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/432024/original/file-20211115-13-ppr0j4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A graph showing human evolution including _Homo bodoensis_ and _Homo sapiens_" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/432024/original/file-20211115-13-ppr0j4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/432024/original/file-20211115-13-ppr0j4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1082&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432024/original/file-20211115-13-ppr0j4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1082&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432024/original/file-20211115-13-ppr0j4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1082&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432024/original/file-20211115-13-ppr0j4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1360&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432024/original/file-20211115-13-ppr0j4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1360&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/432024/original/file-20211115-13-ppr0j4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1360&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A model of human evolution with <em>Homo bodoensis</em> positioned ancestrally to modern humans (<em>Homo sapiens</em>)</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://doi.org/10.1002/evan.21929">(M. Roksandic, P. Radović, X.J. Wu and C. J. Bae)</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Unfortunately, the human fossil record from the Chibanian is sparse and poorly understood — a problem paleoanthropologists refer to as “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/262331a0">the muddle in the Middle</a>.” </p>
<p>There are several human species named from this period, but since the 1980s, paleoanthropologists have tended to lump most of these fossils under one name, <a href="https://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/human-fossils/species/homo-heidelbergensis"><em>Homo heidelbergensis</em></a>. This practice simplified things, but it obscured our understanding of variability in these humans. Many paleoanthropologists agree that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2017.10.013">it is high time to tackle this head-on</a>.</p>
<h2>The species problem</h2>
<p>Species don’t clearly exist in nature: they’re a scientific construct. This might sound surprising — after all, dogs are dogs and cats are cats. But the closer we look into the details, the more problems emerge. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-a-species-the-most-important-concept-in-all-of-biology-is-a-complete-mystery-119200">What is a species? The most important concept in all of biology is a complete mystery</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>For example, how do we divide species over evolutionary time? Evolution can occur gradually by imperceptible increments, seamlessly transitioning from one “species” to the next. The boundaries between these “<a href="https://www.mun.ca/biology/scarr/Evolutionary_vs_Chronospecies.html">chronospecies</a>” are inherently arbitrary so taxonomists — biologists whose work involves identifying and categorizing organisms — create rules to help divide living things into species when no natural boundaries exist.</p>
<p>These rules are called <a href="https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/evo-eco-lab/species-concepts/">species concepts</a>. The most popular of these, called <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences/species-concept">the biological species concept</a>, says that species are groups of organisms that can produce fertile offspring with one another, but not with other organisms. Dogs can make puppies with other dogs, but not with cats, so they are different species. </p>
<p>The objective criteria of this concept have made it very appealing to analytically minded scientists. But the biological species concept isn’t perfect. Notably, it only works for sexually reproducing organisms, which excludes the majority of species, including bacteria and viruses. It’s also not very helpful in paleontology, since we can’t really crossbreed extinct animals to see if they were interfertile. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-44966-1">Over 30 other species concepts</a> have been proposed, which try to account for these shortcomings. But if species are not natural categories, it probably isn’t possible to create a single concept that applies to every possible scenario. Species concepts are scientific tools, and the best one depends on the questions being asked.</p>
<h2>Strict rules</h2>
<p>Naming species is a whole other issue. It can often be difficult to decide if a new fossil represents a new species or just individual variation within an existing species. The fossil record is constantly being reassessed: different species are combined into one or one species gets divided into two. This can lead to a lot of confusion over species names — different scientists may use the same names to describe different species and vice versa. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.iczn.org/">International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature</a> was established to help mitigate this confusion. The ICZN publishes guidelines for animal names with the goal of promoting clarity and stability in scientific communication. One of the most important ICZN rules states that <a href="https://code.iczn.org/validity-of-names-and-nomenclatural-acts/article-23-principle-of-priority/?frame=1">if there is a conflict between the validity of two or more names, the oldest established name has priority</a>. </p>
<p>This is why, as children, many of us were disappointed to learn that <em>Brontosaurus</em> never existed: several fossils were reassessed and combined into one species, and <em>Apatosaurus</em> had priority. But the same approach <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-brontosaurus-is-back1/">resurrected <em>Brontosaurus</em> after another reassessment in 2015</a>.</p>
<h2>New names</h2>
<p>This brings us back to <em>Homo bodoensis</em>. Under the biological species concept, the new name is moot since we know that <a href="https://www.quantamagazine.org/fossil-dna-reveals-new-twists-in-modern-human-origins-20190829/">modern humans, Neanderthals and Denisovans all interbred</a>. The claim that all these groups belong to a single species, <em>Homo sapiens</em>, is valid … <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086190/characters/nm0000027#:%7E:text=When%20that%20happened%2C%20the%20good,A%20certain%20point%20of%20view%3F">from a certain point of view</a>. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/CVvbhVOMLJd","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<p>But a more <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/evan.21386">pragmatic approach that defines species based on distinctive physical traits</a> can serve us better here. From this perspective, all of the Chibanian fossils which share Neanderthal traits get reassigned to <em>Homo neanderthalensis</em>. This includes <a href="http://efossils.org/page/boneviewer/Homo%20heidelbergensis/Mauer%201">the fossil for which <em>Homo heidelbergensis</em> was named</a> — according to the ICZN, that name becomes obsolete.</p>
<p>The remaining Chibanian humans in Africa and parts of Eurasia, which are ancestral to modern humans, but lack specific modern human traits, become a new species.</p>
<p>What should this species be named? The ICZN is unambiguous about this: the name <em>Homo rhodesiensis</em> has priority, since it was given to <a href="https://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/human-fossils/fossils/kabwe-1">a human skull found in Zambia in 1921</a>, although the species was poorly described at the time. </p>
<p>However, the name refers to the former British colony of Rhodesia and its namesake, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-32131829">imperialist mining magnate Cecil Rhodes</a>. This name should be unpalatable to a scientific community interested in decolonization, but the ICZN has made it clear that it will not make provisions to allow name changes based on <a href="https://profjoecain.net/changing-offensive-names-taxonomy/">perceived offensiveness</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/decolonise-science-time-to-end-another-imperial-era-89189">Decolonise science – time to end another imperial era</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>But the ICZN only maintains authority by convention — we respect it because we agree that it works. Researchers and publishers can make their own decisions about which names to accept and which to reject. <em>Homo bodoensis</em> represents a new option in this regard.</p>
<p>In the end, it’s important not to lose sight of the forest for the trees. Species names are meant to help us understand nature, and when they start to get in the way of that goal it’s time to rethink them. <em>Homo bodoensis</em> may be just a name, but the names we use influence the way we perceive the world. And rules or no rules, the best names are the ones that scientists use clearly and consistently.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/171569/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joshua Allan Lindal receives funding from NSERC. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mirjana Roksandic receives funding from NSERC. She is affiliated with the University of Winnipeg, University of Manitoba, Canada and the DFG Center for Advanced Studies “Words, Bones, Genes, Tools” at the University of Tübingen, Germany</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Predrag Radović receives funding from NSERC. </span></em></p>If scientific research is to take decolonization seriously, names for species should reflect this approach and consider the political, social and emotional implications.Joshua Allan Lindal, PhD student, Anthropology, University of ManitobaMirjana Roksandic, Professor, Anthropology, University of WinnipegPredrag Radović, Research Assistant, Archaeology, University of BelgradeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1473582020-10-25T19:03:23Z2020-10-25T19:03:23ZMy best worst film: Pink Flamingos – ‘one of the most vile, stupid and repulsive films ever made’?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/364132/original/file-20201019-13-lzxbj7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C1506%2C1000&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">New Line Cinemas</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>In a new series, our writers explore their best worst film. They’ll tell you what the critics got wrong – and why it’s time to give these movies another chance.</em></p>
<p>While some may know John Waters through his family friendly <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0095270/">Hairspray</a> (1988) – adapted into a stage musical <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hairspray_(musical)">in 2002</a> and back to the screen <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0427327/">in 2007</a> – many know him as the Prince of Puke, the King of Bad Taste or the Pope of Trash. </p>
<p>Perhaps his most notorious film is the exploitation comedy <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069089/">Pink Flamingos</a> (1972), the first in his “Trash Trilogy”, which also includes <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072979/">Female Trouble</a> (1974) and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075936/">Desperate Living</a> (1977). </p>
<p>Pink Flamingos is emblematic of Waters’ camp aesthetic, juxtaposing grotesque subject matter against pastel colours, kitsch props and bubblegum pop music. </p>
<p>Waters’ muse <a href="https://www.them.us/story/drag-herstory-divine">Divine</a> is Babs Johnson, the “filthiest person alive.” She lives with her mother Edie (Edith Massey), who dresses as a baby, sits in a crib and screams for eggs; her ghoulish lover Cotton (Mary Vivian Pearce); and her son Crackers (Danny Mills), who, in a particularly gruesome moment, has sex with a woman while a live chicken is crushed to death between their two bodies.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vUd_6FF4AtM?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>But Babs’ title of “filthiest person alive” is at stake, and she must rival Raymond (David Lochary) and Connie Marble (Mink Stole), who kidnap women, imprison and forcefully impregnate them, and sell their babies to lesbian couples. </p>
<p>Variety’s <a href="https://variety.com/1973/film/reviews/pink-flamingos-1200423192/amp/">first review</a> is now famous, calling it “one of the most vile, stupid and repulsive films ever made.” </p>
<h2>Banned for indecency</h2>
<p>It wasn’t just the critics who were unimpressed. When distributors tried to bring the film to Australia in 1976, it was <a href="https://www.refused-classification.com/censorship/films/p.html">banned</a> for “indecency”. A cut version was given an R rating and released that year theatrically. </p>
<p>The film’s full version was eventually granted an X18+ rating, for pornographic, non-simulated sexual activity, restricting sale and hire of the film to the ACT and some regions of the NT. </p>
<p>In 1997, for a 25th anniversary cinematic re-release, the uncut film was again refused. The classification board <a href="https://www.refused-classification.com/censorship/films/p.html">said</a> films could receive an R rating when sexual activity was “realistically simulated” – but not when it was “the real thing”.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365125/original/file-20201022-19-1x1v1sp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Screenshot: Newspaper reads 'Exclusive photos of the filthiest person alive'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365125/original/file-20201022-19-1x1v1sp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365125/original/file-20201022-19-1x1v1sp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=329&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365125/original/file-20201022-19-1x1v1sp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=329&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365125/original/file-20201022-19-1x1v1sp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=329&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365125/original/file-20201022-19-1x1v1sp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365125/original/file-20201022-19-1x1v1sp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365125/original/file-20201022-19-1x1v1sp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=413&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Babs Johnson may have been the world’s filthiest person – but the classification board thought this could be the world’s filthiest film.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">IMDB</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Films with unsimulated sexual activity, such as Catherine Breillat’s <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0194314/">Romance</a> (1999) and John Cameron Mitchell’s <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0367027/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Shortbus</a> (2006) have since been awarded R18+ classification, allowing the category to include them. </p>
<p>But the full version of Pink Flamingos maintains an X18+ rating. Even the National Film and Sound Archive’s 2017 <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-07-12/the-banned-and-the-beautiful-films-government-censored/8702692">screenings of banned films</a> showed a cut version rated R18+.</p>
<h2>Stupid? No: it was groundbreaking</h2>
<p>Despite this reception, Pink Flamingos is now heralded as groundbreaking. It shaped the boundaries of bad taste and gross out humour. </p>
<p>There are several shocking scenes in the film. One sees Divine and Crackers break into the Marbles’ home where, after licking all the furniture, Divine fellates her son. Another sees a shot of a man flexing his prolapsed anus so it looks like it’s miming the words to “Surfin’ Bird”. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/boundary-pushing-films-are-more-than-their-clickbait-headlines-144062">Boundary-pushing films are more than their clickbait headlines</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>But perhaps the most notorious is where, in the final scene, Divine eats dog faeces to the song “How Much is the Doggy in the Window?”.</p>
<p>Just how much can you stomach when watching something disgusting?</p>
<p>The characters in Pink Flamingos challenge normative ideas around sexuality, gender and family. Confronting perceptions of “good taste”, Pink Flamingos attacked an elitist culture that excluded many communities, such as queer folk and punks. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365123/original/file-20201022-23-1oqqbfl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Devine wearing a red dress, holding a gun" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365123/original/file-20201022-23-1oqqbfl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365123/original/file-20201022-23-1oqqbfl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=896&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365123/original/file-20201022-23-1oqqbfl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=896&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365123/original/file-20201022-23-1oqqbfl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=896&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365123/original/file-20201022-23-1oqqbfl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1126&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365123/original/file-20201022-23-1oqqbfl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1126&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365123/original/file-20201022-23-1oqqbfl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1126&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Pink Flamingos wasn’t interested in telling respectable stories of queer lives.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">IMDB</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Unlike the respectable queer characters palatable to a broad audience in <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5164432/?ref_=fn_al_tt_2">Love, Simon</a> (2018) or <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0157246/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Will & Grace</a> (1998–2005, 2017–), Pink Flamingos allows us pleasure in others’ disgust at these mad characters.</p>
<p>The film draws on a queer rage that channelled the discontent many viewers felt with assimilationist politics. Babs Johnson and her family were disgusting and broke the law – and the audience loved her for it. </p>
<p>Pink Flamingos contributed to a camp aesthetic that is imbued in many popular queer films, such as <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0179116/">But I’m a Cheerleader</a> (1999) and <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0390418/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1">Raspberry Reich</a> (2004), and Waters’ rage became a key part of queer cinema, seen elsewhere in the <a href="https://www.vulture.com/article/new-queer-cinema-movies.html">New Queer Cinema</a> movement of the early 90s and beyond.</p>
<p>In an era when films depicted queer folk as painfully banal, such as <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065488/?ref_=fn_tt_tt_10">The Boys in the Band</a> (1970), or offensive, such as <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080569/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0">Cruising</a> (1980), Waters’ films were a funny and crude counterpoint. </p>
<p>They were a promise of a brighter and queerer future. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-boys-in-the-band-once-banned-in-australia-this-pre-gay-liberation-story-is-now-a-fond-funny-netflix-remake-147005">The Boys in the Band: once banned in Australia, this pre-gay liberation story is now a fond, funny Netflix remake</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>As I have argued <a href="http://www.sensesofcinema.com/2019/20-years-of-senses/divine-dog-shit-john-waters-and-disruptive-queer-humour-in-film-issue-80-september-2016/">elsewhere</a>, Waters’ films do not make explicit political statements. His ideology is conveyed through humour. </p>
<p>Through co-opting the plastic, pink flamingo lawn ornament, Waters makes fun of middle class respectability. Before carrying out the punishment of the Marbles (for “asshole-ism”, no less), Babs Johnson proclaims: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Kill everyone now! Condone first degree murder! Advocate cannibalism! Eat shit! Filth is my politics! Filth is my life! </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The humour lies in the absurdity of the situation.</p>
<p>When Variety dubbed the film “one of the most vile, stupid and repulsive films ever made”, Waters used this on the posters promoting it. Waters wanted to offend people with Pink Flamingos – and if you can stomach to look past the offence, you will find a biting and hilarious film, as shocking and politically relevant as ever.</p>
<p>But in revisiting Pink Flamingos, there is one scene that still doesn’t sit right with me. The on-screen deaths of the chicken (purely for the sake of comedy) are a cruelty and grotesquery that goes beyond my own sense of good taste. Everyone has their limits.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/147358/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stuart Richards does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Called ‘vile’ by Variety, and banned by Australian censors, Pink Flamingos is a shocking and hilarious film.Stuart Richards, Lecturer in Screen Studies, University of South AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1274452019-12-01T18:59:38Z2019-12-01T18:59:38ZEpisode – Choose Your Story: the inappropriate game your kids have probably played<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/304370/original/file-20191129-45264-fci5hw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=15%2C15%2C5160%2C3430&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The game's players are able to customise their own storyline, which can then be 'featured' and shared with other players. The catch is, there's more than 12 million creators - and the content isn't exactly well-regulated. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/download/confirm/1107980378?src=7daba6c0-588a-46d1-a778-5e76f307ac2f-2-45&size=huge_jpg">STEFANY LUNA DE LINZY / Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As smartphone ownership surges, we’re seeing a drastic rise in the use of mobile apps, many of which are marketed towards impressionable young audiences. </p>
<p>One such app is <a href="https://www.episodeinteractive.com/">Episode – Choose Your Story</a>, a free game with more than 50 million downloads and five million weekly users. </p>
<p>Episode is coming under scrutiny by parents and users, many as young as 10, for its inappropriate themes. Such apps are far-reaching, and parenting their use can be tricky. </p>
<p>According to a US <a href="https://www.commonsensemedia.org/sites/default/files/uploads/research/2019-census-8-to-18-key-findings-updated.pdf">report published</a> this year, which surveyed 1,677 kids, 41% of tweens (aged 8-12) and 84% of teens (aged 13-18) owned a smartphone. </p>
<p>There’s an increasing number of games targeted at these age groups, of which many follow a “choose your story” format. </p>
<p>The stories are divided into episodes and the user, or “reader”, can interact with storylines and even create their own. Readers can choose from a list of responses to influence things such as a character’s appearance, dialogue and reaction to events.</p>
<p>While most storylines focus on romance and high school relationships, many have raised alarm bells in parents. A number of parents have <a href="https://www.commonsensemedia.org/app-reviews/episode-choose-your-story/user-reviews/adult">voiced concerns</a> on Common Sense Media, a leading source of entertainment recommendations for families. </p>
<h2>What your child engages with online</h2>
<p>Episode features numerous storylines about sexual discrimination, underage sex and pregnancy. Many of these glorify adultery and are potentially promoting reckless decision making, pettiness and unkind acts. </p>
<p>On inspection, there are several issues with the app. </p>
<p>First, storylines can be written by anyone, even those aged 13-17. And while there are more than 12 million creators, there is little content regulation, even when the Episode community expresses concern. </p>
<p>One story regarding <a href="https://forums.episodeinteractive.com/t/problematic-stories/135210/46">sexual consent</a> raised uproar with users, who were concerned at the poor moral message of a young female character being “blind drunk” and not consenting to a sexual liaison with an older male character.</p>
<p>Yet, the story was not removed, and the author did little to address the backlash. </p>
<p>Another concerning aspect of the game is that in many situations, users have to pay money to make morally correct decisions, yet reckless choices are free. This reinforces inappropriate reactions to events. This is also where players can unwittingly spend huge amounts of money.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-app-trap-how-children-spend-thousands-online-21652">The app trap: how children spend thousands online</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>What about parental guidance ratings?</h2>
<p>On the Common Sense Media website, parents have given Episode a parental advisory rating of 14+, whereas kids have rated it suitable for ages 13+. </p>
<p>On the Apple App Store, the game is rated 12+ and on Google Play it’s rated “Mature”.</p>
<p>That said, <a href="https://blog.apptopia.com/interactive-story-games-tap-into-our-love-for-storytelling">players</a> of Episode are often impressionable older children and teens. A 12+ rating offers little guidance to parents, and ratings overall don’t seem to deter children from playing. </p>
<p>This is hardly surprising. At this stage of development, peer relationships are highly rewarding. Many players are introduced to apps such as Episode by siblings or friends, and are enticed by the excitement they offer. </p>
<p><a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0963721412471347">Research</a> shows several areas of the brain make adolescents more sensitive to the rewards of peer relationships than adults. This motivates teens to focus on their peers in decision-making situations that involve risky behaviour. </p>
<p>This is apparent in one comment from a <a href="https://www.commonsensemedia.org/app-reviews/episode-choose-your-story/user-reviews/child">13-year-old</a> made on a Common Sense Media forum about Episode:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>WOW!!! The best app!!!!! I love it!!!!! P.S. – kids, make sure your parents don’t know you’re using Episode! ;)</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>No universal standard</h2>
<p>Although different countries offer their own <a href="https://www.classification.gov.au/">classifications</a> for online sites and gaming, there’s no universal standard apps have to meet in order to establish suitability for children and teens. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/is-that-porn-your-child-is-watching-online-how-do-you-know-64120">Is that porn your child is watching online? How do you know?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Due to the discrepancy in app store ratings, the best prevention of a child or teen using inappropriate apps is to refer to guidance sites such as <a href="https://www.commonsensemedia.org/">Common Sense Media</a>. </p>
<p>But an even better defence is for parents to test questionable apps themselves. From those adults who offer valuable feedback online for childrens’ apps, many are parents who have personally tried the apps.</p>
<p>Until there’s an improved consensus on app classification, parental monitoring remains best practice.</p>
<h2>Other things parents can do</h2>
<p>To prevent the use of unsuitable apps by children and teens, parents can try establishing a verbal and written contract with their child before they are allowed to own a smartphone, or other smart device. </p>
<p>It should contain guidelines for when, how long and what can be viewed on the device. There should also be transparency around what’s being downloaded, with parents checking the device(s) on a regular basis. </p>
<p>Furthermore, due to the tendency of apps such as Episode to encourage consumerism, children and teens should not buy gems, tokens, cards or any app-related digital currency, without first discussing this with an adult.</p>
<p>As it is, the <a href="https://thinkgaming.com/app-sales-data/6028/episode-choose-your-story/">estimated daily revenue</a> of Episode is US$105,000.</p>
<h2>Passive versus interactive</h2>
<p>A major criticism of screen time and app use is that it’s passive and requires little or no involvement from users. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5403814/#B21">Research</a> suggests typing on a keyboard to <a href="http://www.essentialkids.com.au/education/school/primary-school/handwriting-better-for-your-brain-than-typing-research-shows-20190130-h1aofr?btis">calculate times tables</a>, rather than writing by hand or using a smartphone, can hinder long-term learning and memory. </p>
<p>Instead of encouraging device usage, children benefit from more reading, storytelling and imaginative play. As they mature, <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/342/6156/377">such activities enable</a> greater fluency, theory of mind (which is understanding that others may have different beliefs and desires to you), and moral reasoning abilities.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/five-reasons-why-you-should-read-aloud-to-your-kids-and-pick-their-favourite-book-49740">Five reasons why you should read aloud to your kids – and pick their favourite book</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The good news is, app developers have also started to heed such advice, with many promoting the interactive components of their product. </p>
<p>And this isn’t just to appease parents. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.scholastic.com/parents/school-success/learning-toolkit-blog/six-apps-digital-storytelling-kids.html">Apps that encourage storytelling</a>, many led by research and developed by educators, are popular with children and teens too.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/127445/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr Janine M. Cooper does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The mobile game has been downloaded more than 50 million times. If you have kids, they’ve probably played it. But it’s more problematic than most people realise.Dr Janine M. Cooper, Founder, Everyday Neuro & Honorary Fellow Manager, Clinical Sciences, Murdoch Children's Research InstituteLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/961152018-05-15T20:23:15Z2018-05-15T20:23:15ZThere are no age restrictions for gambling in video games, despite potential risks to children<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/218743/original/file-20180514-178754-11wzota.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Gambling via mobile devices or mobile games has remained largely unregulated in Australia.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/pupils-using-mobile-phone-elementary-school-1088478797?src=X7xbKeOAM3vWk34LskK_IA-2-78">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>According to a 2018 <a href="http://www.igea.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Digital-Australia-2018-DA18-Final-1.pdf">report</a> by Digital Australia, 97% of Australian households with children have at least one device for playing video games. More than 60% of households have <a href="http://www.igea.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Digital-Australia-2018-DA18-Final-1.pdf">five or more</a> devices. </p>
<p>Since the early 2000s, the boom in mobile technology has seen the spread of video games from desktop PCs to the pockets of young people everywhere. But with that spread has come new hazards, in the form of online social gambling.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/loot-boxes-and-pay-to-win-features-in-digital-games-look-a-lot-like-gambling-88010">'Loot boxes' and pay-to-win features in digital games look a lot like gambling</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Gambling games are mostly rated ‘PG’ or ‘G’</h2>
<p>Gambling via mobile devices or mobile games has remained <a href="https://aifs.gov.au/agrc/sites/default/files/agrc-dp5-simulated-gambling-paper.pdf">largely unregulated</a> in Australia. In a 2012 <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14459795.2012.661444?scroll=top&needAccess=true&journalCode=rigs20">study</a> of more than 100 video games featuring gambling simulations, 69 of them were rated PG (8+) and 33 of them were rated G (for a general audience) by the Australian regulator. </p>
<p>In other words, no gambling games received any age restrictions.</p>
<p>The Australian Classification Board, the body charged with rating games, consistently <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14459795.2012.661444">underrates</a> games that feature gambling, despite the potential risk they pose to children. </p>
<p>Part of the explanation comes down to the way games are classified. In Australia, video games <a href="https://www.esafety.gov.au/education-resources/iparent/multimedia-reviews/movies-and-games/movie-and-game-classifications">classifications</a> are based on six criteria: themes, violence, sex, language, drug use and nudity. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/social-casino-games-can-help-or-harm-problem-gamblers-33185">Social casino games can help – or harm – problem gamblers</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Gambling comes under the first broad category of “themes” and is generally <a href="https://aifs.gov.au/agrc/sites/default/files/agrc-dp5-simulated-gambling-paper.pdf">classified</a> according to the presence of gambling, gambling references or gambling themes.</p>
<p>Game developers use the classification system to their advantage by skirting the edges of what is considered an acceptable “presence of gambling”. Gambling video games tend to fall into three broad categories in this regard: actual online casinos, social gambling games (which can use real money, but can also be played for free) and games that use gambling techniques. </p>
<p>The latter type, including games such as Candy Crush, <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-business-of-addiction-how-the-video-gaming-industry-is-evolving-to-be-like-the-casino-industry-83361">use techniques similar to a slot machine</a>, but do not actually look like a casino. The other types often explicitly look like a casino. Regardless, they still receive a G rating.</p>
<h2>Risks for children</h2>
<p>When children and teenagers play simulated gambling games (featuring either real money or fake money), they are more likely to grow up and gamble with real money. One <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14459795.2017.1343366">study</a> found that almost 30% of adolescents who played simulated poker went on to play real poker with real money later in life. </p>
<p>Some companies claim that games can have gambling techniques, with no risk to children, so long as there is no real money involved. However, even if gambling games are ostensibly “free” to play, they pose a risk to young people by making them <a href="http://sheu.org.uk/sheux/EH/eh314mg.pdf">more susceptible</a> to gambling mechanics, psychological tricks and addiction. </p>
<p>To put it simply, when a young person reaches age 18 and finally enters a casino having previously played social gambling games, they will be more susceptible to real gambling and psychological addiction, because they will be <a href="http://sheu.org.uk/sheux/EH/eh314mg.pdf">primed for it</a>. </p>
<h2>Gaming classifications are out of step</h2>
<p>The low classification of gambling games in Australia is out of line with the broader laws on gambling. </p>
<p>In all states, there are <a href="https://www.pc.gov.au/inquiries/completed/gambling/report/gambling2.pdf">strict laws</a> on who can enter a casino and who can gamble, with every state imposing age restrictions roughly correlating with adulthood. If these general laws were imposed on gambling games, they <a href="https://www.esafety.gov.au/education-resources/iparent/multimedia-reviews/movies-and-games/movie-and-game-classifications">would receive</a> a classification of R (18+) – the highest possible rating – rather than G (for a general audience). </p>
<p>Since 2013, Australia has had an R (18+) category for games. At the time of its introduction, it was <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-01-01/r182b-rating-comes-into-effect/4449370">argued</a> that the adult rating would empower the classification agency, and stop kids from having access to games that could potentially harm them. It would appear that that has not occurred with regards to gambling games.</p>
<p>Despite recent statements by the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation that some video game mechanics can “<a href="https://www.kotaku.com.au/2017/11/victorias-gambling-regulator-loot-boxes-constitute-gambling/">constitute gambling</a>”, not much has changed regarding the law in Victoria or any other state. Victorian officials state that they can do <a href="https://www.kotaku.com.au/2017/11/victorias-gambling-regulator-loot-boxes-constitute-gambling/">very little</a> when a gaming company or product is based overseas. </p>
<p>However, it is unclear why the regulator, the Australian Classification Board, cannot put higher ratings on gambling games sold in Australia, in Australian stores or on Australian websites. </p>
<h2>The benefits of gaming</h2>
<p>Video games do not have to be addictive or feature gambling mechanics to be fun or to make money. Many of the most successful video games today feature no gambling mechanics at all. Some are actually <a href="http://www.igea.net/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Digital-Australia-2018-DA18-Final-1.pdf">good for you</a> because they help develop creativity, keep an active brain or teach new skills. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-business-of-addiction-how-the-video-gaming-industry-is-evolving-to-be-like-the-casino-industry-83361">The business of addiction: how the video gaming industry is evolving to be like the casino industry</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The rise of <a href="https://cdu.edu.au/olt/ltresources/downloads/whitepaper-introductiontogamification-130726103056-phpapp02.pdf">gamification</a>, or the use of games for serious purposes, has led to a variety of games that assist educators, the government and private companies in creating interactive learning experiences. </p>
<p>It is unfortunate that some video gaming companies continue to develop gambling and anti-social video games, when the power of video games as a positive medium for change is just starting to develop.</p>
<p>Without further action by the regulator, it is up to the states to determine whether online gambling video games should remain out of line with the general laws concerning gambling and age restrictions in Australia.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/96115/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joshua Krook is associated with the University of Adelaide law school, and currently acts as the director of Atreyu Games.</span></em></p>The spread of video games from desktop PCs to the pockets of young people everywhere has brought new hazards – in the form of online social gambling.Joshua Krook, Doctoral Candidate in Law, University of AdelaideLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/795212017-07-12T13:17:04Z2017-07-12T13:17:04ZWill there ever be a level playing field in visually impaired sport?<p>The <a href="http://www.paraathleticschampionships.com/">World Para Athletics Championships</a> in London will feature ten eligible impairment types: eight physical, intellectual and visual. Public understanding of the issue has grown through media reporting and <a href="http://lexi.global/">LEXI</a> – the revolutionary system used by Channel 4 which explains the different classifications. But very little is known about the actual process and the implications for athletes. In visually impaired (VI) sport, the organisation of different “classes” for international competition is complex and vary wildly across the disciplines. The question is: is a “level playing field” achievable? </p>
<p>In visually impaired sport, all athletes undergo the process of classification in an attempt to ensure equitable competition. Medical assessment of the two main measures of sight – visual acuity and visual field – determines athletes’ visual ability and in <a href="http://www.ibsasport.org/classification/">which class they are eligible to compete</a>. The different classes within visually impaired sport are B1, B2 and B3. The most visually impaired athletes fall into B1. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175887/original/file-20170627-24798-1oricws.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175887/original/file-20170627-24798-1oricws.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=270&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175887/original/file-20170627-24798-1oricws.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=270&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175887/original/file-20170627-24798-1oricws.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=270&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175887/original/file-20170627-24798-1oricws.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=340&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175887/original/file-20170627-24798-1oricws.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=340&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175887/original/file-20170627-24798-1oricws.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=340&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Classes in visually impaired sport.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In athletics, these three classes equate to T11/F11, T12/F12 and T13/F13, respectively, with T referring to track events and F to field events. Because the majority of athletics events are individual, the organisation of visually impaired athletics is relatively straightforward, with athletes competing only against those in the same class. T/F11 athletes are <a href="http://www.britishblindsport.org.uk/files/2015-02-06/VisuallyImpairedFriendlyAthletics.pdf">required to wear</a> opaque glasses to block out any light and ensure fair competition. Running with a guide is mandatory for athletes in the T11 class and optional for T12 and there are specific rules for the only team event, the 4x100m relay. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175891/original/file-20170627-12943-17r46u0.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175891/original/file-20170627-12943-17r46u0.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=281&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175891/original/file-20170627-12943-17r46u0.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=281&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175891/original/file-20170627-12943-17r46u0.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=281&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175891/original/file-20170627-12943-17r46u0.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=353&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175891/original/file-20170627-12943-17r46u0.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=353&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175891/original/file-20170627-12943-17r46u0.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=353&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Organisation of visually impaired athletics.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In football, international competition is organised into either blind football (B1s only) or partially sighted football (B2s and B3s). In partially sighted football, a quota system operates limiting the number of B3s on the pitch at any time.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175894/original/file-20170627-24813-12rtlz5.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175894/original/file-20170627-24813-12rtlz5.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175894/original/file-20170627-24813-12rtlz5.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175894/original/file-20170627-24813-12rtlz5.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175894/original/file-20170627-24813-12rtlz5.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175894/original/file-20170627-24813-12rtlz5.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175894/original/file-20170627-24813-12rtlz5.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Organisation of visually impaired football.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>At the UK domestic level, the <a href="http://www.britishblindsport.org.uk/sports/football/">Partially Sighted Football League</a> and the <a href="http://www.bcew.co.uk/national/">Blind Cricket England and Wales National League</a> also allow players classified as <a href="http://www.britishblindsport.org.uk/classification/">B4</a> (typically less than 25% normal vision) – but they are not eligible to compete internationally. In comparison to athletics and football, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ET_-6sMcuL4&t=91shttp://example.com/">visually impaired cricket</a> is uniquely made up of both blind and partially sighted players. International cricket also operates a quota system with specific rules relating to batting and bowling for B1 players. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175895/original/file-20170627-24760-1m0y2b.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175895/original/file-20170627-24760-1m0y2b.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=298&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175895/original/file-20170627-24760-1m0y2b.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=298&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175895/original/file-20170627-24760-1m0y2b.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=298&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175895/original/file-20170627-24760-1m0y2b.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175895/original/file-20170627-24760-1m0y2b.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175895/original/file-20170627-24760-1m0y2b.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Organisation of visually impaired cricket.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What are the issues?</h2>
<p>One major problem is that there will always be athletes on the margins of two different classes. One football player in <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02614360903071696">our research</a> argued that due to the broad spectrum of visual impairment across B2 players, the grouping of B2s and B3s at international level is “fundamentally discriminatory with virtually no opportunities for those with a great deal of talent but with poor vision not low enough to qualify for B1 status”. </p>
<p>The FA has tried to address this by allowing these players to participate in the <a href="http://www.thefa.com/get-involved/player/disability/grassroots-disability-football/blind-football">National Blind Football League</a> within the UK as “B1b” athletes. But they are not eligible to compete in international blind football and effectively have no opportunity to progress to elite level in partially sighted football. </p>
<p>In international athletics competitions, such as the Paralympics and World Para Athletics Championships, not all events are open to all visually impaired classes. There are also more events for visually impaired men than women. For example, the 5000 metre event is open to T11 and T13 men but not T12 men or any visually impaired women. One reason for this is there are not enough international athletes to make up a competitive event.</p>
<p>Within the Paralympics, the issue is also affected by politics. When the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and International Paralympic Committee (IPC) formalised ties in 2001, the IOC <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233862400_The_Cultural_Politics_of_the_Paralympic_Movement_Through_the_Anthropological_Lens">required</a> that “the Paralympic Games be restricted in size to 4000 athletes”. This was an attempt to streamline it and make it more marketable. Although London 2012 and Rio 2016 both exceeded 4000 athletes, the fact is that some visually impaired events remain closed to certain classes and women. This, arguably, goes against the IPC <a href="https://www.paralympic.org/the-ipc/about-us">aspiration</a> “to make for a more inclusive society for people with an impairment through Para sport”.</p>
<h2>Exploitation, gossip and rumour</h2>
<p>UK Athletics’ recent admission that <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2017/mar/20/classification-system-for-paralympic-track-and-field-open-to-abuse">current classification rules can be exploited</a> comes as no surprise to those involved in disability sport. </p>
<p>In visually impaired cricket, <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/cricket/7787815.stm">gossip and the rumour of cheating</a> is commonplace. One player in <a href="https://www.academia.edu/31049227/An_Embodied_Approach_to_Disability_Sport_Lived_Experiences_of_Visually_Impaired_Cricket_Players">our research</a> admitted “it seems to be a real culture in this sport”. Accusations are aimed at opposition players but also between teammates who may be challenging for the same position in the squad. Despite the claims, none of the players we interviewed could provide specific examples of guilt. </p>
<p>We believe the underlying reason behind such accusations is the classification system itself. This medicalised process creates a bodily “status-quo”. When breached, through a high level of performance, some players use gossip and rumour as a form of self-defence to tarnish more proficient performers as cheats. </p>
<p>The various stakeholders in disability sport have a considerable challenge on their hands when it comes to classification. As we have shown by highlighting just some of the issues across only three sports, classification can present a range of problems for visually impaired athletes. The extent to which the process will ever be able to guarantee fair and equitable competition remains to be seen.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/79521/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Can there ever be a truly level playing field when it comes to visually imparied sport?Jessica Louise Macbeth, Senior Lecturer in Sports Studies, University of Central LancashireBen Powis, Lecturer in Football Studies, Solent UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/635392016-08-05T09:34:05Z2016-08-05T09:34:05ZMusical genres are out of date – but this new system explains why you might like both jazz and hip hop<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/133092/original/image-20160804-505-8utcrn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/99624358@N00/5506222889/in/photolist-9oyQep-nqndNS-qW5fw7-6XbeEt-wbMF19-j8ivqN-nyBe2L-ekd6yR-71KZpb-9sYpMm-aRn4Z8-6UpWRW-8drjdR-vKuzYC-tkPKDj-8HsrHc-dPsytx-dPycgj-dPyces-dPycio-dPycjY-dPsyE8-dPsyCp-dPycay-dPsyiz-dPybZ5-pLRjqt-pGTcxB-dPsyok-dPsypX-4JFqoE-dhKjPM-dPsyFP-9iAYTG-dPyc3u-5svNQu-Hf1Si-dmWDhJ-48CGjo-naYpy5-naYjr7-nEbhkL-npJjWg-naYmdU-9xup4B-bjkegg-aYpZt2-5CikTp-6MVqhS-bkBsqS">99624358@N00/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>It’s hard to pinpoint the exact time in history when genre labels were used to classify music, but the fact is that over the past century, and certainly still today, genre labels dominate. Whether organising your iTunes library, receiving music recommendations from apps like Spotify, or buying CDs at a record store, genre is the first way in which we navigate the music we like.</p>
<p>However, technological advances have now put millions of songs at our fingertips through mobile devices. Not only do we have access to more music than ever before, but more music is being produced. Places like <a href="https://soundcloud.com/">SoundCloud</a> have made it possible for anyone to record and publish music for others to hear. With this increased diversity in music that we are exposed to, the lines separating genres have become even more blurred than they were previously.</p>
<p>Genre labels are problematic for several reasons. First, they are broad umbrella terms that are used to describe music that vary greatly in their characteristics. If a person says they are a fan of “rock” music, there is no way of knowing whether they are referring to The Beatles, Bob Dylan, or Jimi Hendrix — but all three vary greatly in style. Or if a person tells you that they are a fan of pop music, how do you know if they are referring to Michael Jackson or Justin Bieber?</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/133093/original/image-20160804-496-ka2he8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/133093/original/image-20160804-496-ka2he8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133093/original/image-20160804-496-ka2he8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133093/original/image-20160804-496-ka2he8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=377&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133093/original/image-20160804-496-ka2he8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133093/original/image-20160804-496-ka2he8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133093/original/image-20160804-496-ka2he8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=473&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Where to start?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ollyy/Shutterstock.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Genre labels are also often socially driven with little to do with the actual characteristics of the music. They are labels stamped onto artists and albums by record companies with the intent of targeting a particularly type of audience or age group.</p>
<h2>Beyond genre</h2>
<p>The fundamental problem is that genre labels often do not accurately describe artists and their music – they simply do not do them justice. A more accurate way to label music would be based solely on their actual musical characteristics (or attributes). Such a labelling system would also likely better account for diversity in a person’s music taste.</p>
<p>Recently, my team of music psychologists addressed this problem by developing a scientific way to create a basic classification system of music that is based on its attributes and not social connotations. The team included expert in musical preferences, Jason Rentfrow (Cambridge), best-selling author and neuroscientist Daniel Levitin (McGill), big data scientists David Stillwell (Cambridge) and Michal Kosinski (Stanford), and music researcher Brian Monteiro. Our <a href="http://spp.sagepub.com/content/7/6/597">research</a> was published this month.</p>
<p>We had more than 100 musical excerpts spanning over 20 genres and subgenres rated on 38 different musical attributes. We then applied a statistical procedure to categorise these musical attributes and discovered that they clustered into three basic categories: “Arousal” (the energy level of the music); “Valence” (the spectrum from sad to happy emotions in the music); and “Depth” (the amount of sophistication and emotional depth in the music). The statistical procedure mapped each song on each these three basic categories. For example, Joni Mitchell’s “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5782PQO5is">Blue</a>” is low on arousal (because of the slow tempo and soft vocals), low on valence (because of the expressed nostalgia and sadness), and high on depth (because of the emotional and sonic complexity expressed through the lyrics and sonic texture).</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/133076/original/image-20160804-484-1kkihi5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/133076/original/image-20160804-484-1kkihi5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/133076/original/image-20160804-484-1kkihi5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133076/original/image-20160804-484-1kkihi5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133076/original/image-20160804-484-1kkihi5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133076/original/image-20160804-484-1kkihi5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=554&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133076/original/image-20160804-484-1kkihi5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=554&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/133076/original/image-20160804-484-1kkihi5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=554&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The songs listed represent each of the three musical attribute clusters.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/can-your-personality-explain-your-itunes-playlist">Tricia Seibold | Stanford Business | http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/insights/can-your-personality-explain-your-itunes-playlist</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Arousal, valence, depth</h2>
<p>Will people start walking around wearing T-shirts that say “I love Depth in music”, or list themselves as fans of positive valence on their Twitter profiles? I doubt it. But it might be useful if people began to use attributes to describe the music that they like (aggressive or soft; happy or nostalgic). People’s music libraries today are incredibly diverse, typically containing music from a variety of genres. My hypothesis is that if people like arousal in one musical genre, they are likely to like it in another.</p>
<p>Even though these basic three dimensions probably won’t become a part of culture, recommendation platforms, like Spotify, Pandora, Apple Music, and YouTube should find these dimensions useful when coding and trying to accurately recommend music for their users to listen to. Further, it is also useful for scientists, psychologists, and neuroscientists who are studying the effect of music and want an accurate method to measure it.</p>
<p>Our team next sought to see how preferences for these three dimensions were linked to the <a href="https://www.boundless.com/psychology/textbooks/boundless-psychology-textbook/personality-16/trait-perspectives-on-personality-79/the-five-factor-model-311-12846/">Big Five</a>. Personality traits (openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism). Nearly 10,000 people indicated their preferences for 50 musical excerpts and completed a personality measure. People who scored high on “openness to experience” preferred depth in music, while extroverted excitement-seekers preferred high arousal in music. Those who were relatively neurotic preferred negative emotions in music, while those who were self-assured preferred positive emotions in music.</p>
<iframe src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/5zLwT/1/" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" oallowfullscreen="oallowfullscreen" msallowfullscreen="msallowfullscreen" width="100%" height="471"></iframe>
<p>So, just as the old Kern and Hammerstein song suggests, “The Song is You”. That is, the musical attributes that you like most reflect your personality. It also provides scientific support for what Joni Mitchell said in a 2013 <a href="http://www.jonimitchell.com/library/view.cfm?id=2600">interview</a> with CBC: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The trick is if you listen to that music and you see me, you’re not getting anything out of it. If you listen to that music and you see yourself, it will probably make you cry and you’ll learn something about yourself and now you’re getting something out of it.</p>
</blockquote>
<hr>
<p><em>Find out how you score on the music and personality quizzes at <a href="http://www.musicaluniverse.org">www.musicaluniverse.org</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/63539/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Greenberg received funding from The Cambridge Trust during this period of research. </span></em></p>A team of music psychologists have come up with a new way of classifying music that streaming platforms such as Spotify may find very useful.David M. Greenberg, Music psychologist, University of CambridgeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/313552014-10-14T19:31:01Z2014-10-14T19:31:01ZThere’s no such thing as reptiles any more – and here’s why<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/58868/original/65mgbbqb-1410504625.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">No, it's nothing to do with a reptilian existential crisis – just a name game.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/wiccked/250385699">melanie cook/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>You have likely been to a zoo at some point and visited their reptile house. A building where the climate control dial is stuck on the “wet sauna” setting, and filled with maniacal children competing to be the first to press their ice cream covered face and hands on every available piece of clean glass.</p>
<p>Assuming you managed to find some clean glass, and supposing the animals were not hiding from the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3ygiGa5vFw">incessant banging</a> and requests to perform like circus animals, you would have likely seen turtles, crocodiles, snakes and lizards.</p>
<p>But what if I told you reptiles don’t exist.</p>
<p>I am not suggesting that you imagined seeing scaly creatures, but the group of animals we refer to as “reptiles” does not exist – at least not anymore.</p>
<p>It all has to do with our (humans, that is) penchant for categorisation. We just love putting things into boxes, and those boxes into bigger boxes. Scientists have even turned this activity into an entire field of biological research, called [taxonomy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxonomy_(biology%29).</p>
<p>Several methods of classification have been used throughout the history of taxonomy. The current, most widely accepted method – <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cladistics">cladistics</a> – is considered to be the most objective as it takes into account an organism’s evolutionary history.</p>
<p>The picture below maps out our current understanding of the relationships between land vertebrates. First thing to notice, the label <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetrapod">tetrapoda</a> on the left is the base of the diagram, indicating that all species to the right are within the group tetrapoda. From here you can go down each path, labelling each group. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/58799/original/whbfqs9p-1410439881.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/58799/original/whbfqs9p-1410439881.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/58799/original/whbfqs9p-1410439881.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/58799/original/whbfqs9p-1410439881.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/58799/original/whbfqs9p-1410439881.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/58799/original/whbfqs9p-1410439881.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/58799/original/whbfqs9p-1410439881.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/58799/original/whbfqs9p-1410439881.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Cladogram of tetrapods (land vertebrates). Reptiles as a group exist on different branches rather than all together.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For example, the three groups of animals at the top (caecillians, salamanders and frogs) all belong to the group <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amphibian">amphibia</a>, and all the groups of animals from junction [B] onwards are grouped as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amniote">amniota</a>.</p>
<p>The construction of such a diagram depends on the common ancestors that groups of animals share. For example, junction [A] represents the common ancestor between us and an echidna. Humans are part of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eutheria">eutheria</a> and echidnas are <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monotreme">monotremes</a>. All animals sharing this common ancestor are labelled as mammals. Also, in evolutionary terms, we would say that two species that share a common ancestor at junction [A] would be more closely related than those species sharing a common ancestor at junction [B].</p>
<p>All pretty straightforward – but, this is where the reptile label runs into a problem.</p>
<p>I have circled the group of animals we normally refer to as reptiles. If you trace their paths back, you will arrive at junction [C], the last common ancestor of those groups. So, if we are to consider all animals from junction [C] onwards as reptiles, then we must also label birds as reptiles. We could do this I guess, but it would be redundant. The group of animals from junction [C] onwards are already referred to as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sauropsida">sauropsida</a>.</p>
<p>Hence, <em>reptile is dead</em>. (I suspect Nietzsche will still be quoted more.)</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/58861/original/c8fp8fty-1410503431.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/58861/original/c8fp8fty-1410503431.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/58861/original/c8fp8fty-1410503431.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/58861/original/c8fp8fty-1410503431.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/58861/original/c8fp8fty-1410503431.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/58861/original/c8fp8fty-1410503431.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/58861/original/c8fp8fty-1410503431.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/58861/original/c8fp8fty-1410503431.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The tuatara looks like a lizard, but it isn’t one.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>An obvious question at this point: if there is no such group of animals called reptiles, then why are there reptile houses at zoos? As you might guess, it has to do with history.</p>
<h2>Looks aren’t everything</h2>
<p>Classification of animals (and plants for that matter) was formalised in the 18th century by Swedish scientist <a href="http://www.nhm.ac.uk/nature-online/science-of-natural-history/biographies/linnaeus/">Carl Linnaeus</a>. Linnaeus built his classification system on the way animals looked, in an age when species were considered to be fixed and unchanging.</p>
<p>Using anatomical keys, Linnaeus divided the animal kingdom into <a href="http://books.google.com.au/books?id=CtgGAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA651&lpg=PA651&dq=A+general+system+of+nature:+through+the+three+great+kingdoms+of+animals,+vegetables,+and+minerals+reptile&source=bl&ots=vvc-JMdoq0&sig=Wc9YcBkm4v2o9-fTVeghdejwRKA&hl=en&sa=X&ei=cF8QVJmlMofkuQSiuYHQDw&ved=0CCkQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q&f=false">six classes</a>: </p>
<ol>
<li>mammalia</li>
<li>birds</li>
<li>amphibia</li>
<li>fishes</li>
<li>insects</li>
<li>worms. </li>
</ol>
<p>Then, as with current taxonomical methods, further divided these broad groups into more refined taxonomic categories.</p>
<p>Species of amphibia were divided into two groups:</p>
<ol>
<li>reptiles</li>
<li>serpents. </li>
</ol>
<p>Reptiles were considered to have feet, with flat naked ears; where serpents did not have feet, laid eggs connected in a chain and “penis double”. That’s right, snakes have a pair of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemipenis">hemipenes</a>. In fact, this last observation is odd since lizards also have a pair. Having feet was clearly the more important diagnostic tool for Linnaeus, otherwise he would have known to put snakes and lizards together.</p>
<p>Linnaeus’ categorisation methods meant that many species were incorrectly grouped together. For instance, reptiles comprised turtles, lizards, crocodiles, salamanders and frogs, while serpents included snakes, legless lizards and caecilians. As you can see from our modern branched image above, Linnaeus may have done better just picking names out of a hat – but I suppose that’s always easier with 20/20 hindsight.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/58862/original/bs9g96nh-1410503553.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/58862/original/bs9g96nh-1410503553.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/58862/original/bs9g96nh-1410503553.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/58862/original/bs9g96nh-1410503553.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/58862/original/bs9g96nh-1410503553.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/58862/original/bs9g96nh-1410503553.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/58862/original/bs9g96nh-1410503553.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/58862/original/bs9g96nh-1410503553.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=513&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The komodo dragon? Try komodo monitor.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As naturalists developed new methods of classification, new boxes were created, some species were taken out of one box and added to another. </p>
<p>Early in the 19th century French zoologist <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Andr%C3%A9_Latreille">Pierre Latreille</a> divided the tetrapod group into four major groups:</p>
<ol>
<li>mammals</li>
<li>amphibians</li>
<li>birds</li>
<li>reptiles. </li>
</ol>
<p>Since then, though taxonomists have routinely shuffled and revised the groups, and though genetic techniques have given us new insights into the evolution of these organisms, the name has stuck.</p>
<p>I don’t expect zoos will change the reptile house to the “non-avian reptile house” or “sauropsida house” anytime soon. It doesn’t really have the same ring to it.</p>
<p>As for biology texts, though the reptile label no longer relates to an evolutionary group as mammals or birds does, biologists will still use it. </p>
<p>The “reptile” label groups together a deeply fascinating group of animals who are persecuted far too much, researched far too little and likely have many great stories yet to reveal.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/31355/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dustin Welbourne does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>You have likely been to a zoo at some point and visited their reptile house. A building where the climate control dial is stuck on the “wet sauna” setting, and filled with maniacal children competing to…Dustin Welbourne, PhD Candidate in Biogeography + Science Communicator, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/72512012-06-10T20:08:48Z2012-06-10T20:08:48ZMeeting the challenge of convergent media policy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/11446/original/gq73j76n-1338954430.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Will Google be subject to Australian media regulation?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Stuck in Customs</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It’s been a remarkably busy year for Australian media policy. </p>
<p>There have been three major reports released that address the future of media policy and regulation in the context of convergent media: the <a href="http://www.dbcde.gov.au/digital_economy/convergence_review">Convergence Review</a>; the <a href="http://www.dbcde.gov.au/digital_economy/independent_media_inquiry">Independent Media Inquiry</a> (Finkelstein Review); and the <a href="http://www.alrc.gov.au/publications/classification-content-regulation-and-convergent-media-alrc-report-118">Review of the National Classification Scheme</a>.</p>
<p>In fact, 2012 marks the most significant moment in Australian media policy since the 1990s, when the <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/bsa1992214/">Broadcasting Services Act</a>, the <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/ta1997214/">Telecommunications Act</a> and the <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/cfacga1995489/">Classification Act</a> were all legislated. While these were major initiatives at the time, they were pre-Internet forms of media law that did not anticipate the tsunami of change associated with digitisation, convergence and the globalisation of media.</p>
<h2>Leading the world</h2>
<p>While other countries are still considering how to adapt their media laws for convergence, Australia has been a world leader in addressing these challenges. </p>
<p>A common theme of all reports is that incremental change is no longer sufficient. Media regulation cannot continue to be primarily based upon the platform of delivery (print, radio, television, the internet) when convergence has dislodged the technological bases that used to tie content to platforms.</p>
<p>The Australian Communications and Media Authority refers to “<a href="http://acma.gov.au/theACMA/Library/researchacma/Research-reports/acma-media-release-852011-29-august-broken-concepts-regulation-from-preinternet-times">broken concepts</a>”, that exist in current media law. Some of these are anachronistic, such as the ban on live hypnosis on television. Others address a once-important concept that has been overwhelmed by new developments, such as the separation of control over the delivery platform from the provision of content. </p>
<h2>Justified intervention</h2>
<p>The Convergence Review identified three areas where continued government intervention is justified. </p>
<p>First, there is the need to maintain a degree of diversity in media ownership and control. </p>
<p>Second, there is the question of content standards, both in terms of news standards and classification of media content in line with community standards. </p>
<p>Third, there are expectations that locally produced content that is broadly reflective of Australian culture, identity and diversity will continue to be available.</p>
<p>But the question of <em>who</em> should be regulated has become much more complex in a convergent media environment. </p>
<h2>Regulating the internet</h2>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/11447/original/wmpry9x7-1338954440.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/11447/original/wmpry9x7-1338954440.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/11447/original/wmpry9x7-1338954440.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/11447/original/wmpry9x7-1338954440.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/11447/original/wmpry9x7-1338954440.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/11447/original/wmpry9x7-1338954440.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/11447/original/wmpry9x7-1338954440.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Who will regulate the internet?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">kyz</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In discussions of media influence, a distinction is commonly made between “big media” on the one hand, who should be regulated more (the name “Rupert Murdoch” will often appear at this juncture) and the internet on the other, which should not be regulated at all.</p>
<p>But “the internet” is as much <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/">The Australian online</a>, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world/">BBC World</a>, <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/">CNN.com</a> or <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/iview/">ABC iView</a>, as it is blogging, online mashups or user-created content. </p>
<p>In other words, the commercial and the non-commercial, the mass media and citizen media, co-exist in the same online space. The question of media influence returns in a different form.</p>
<h2>Singling out big media</h2>
<p>The Convergence Review sought to address the question of when a media organisation becomes “big”, and hence appropriately subject to regulations, based on its potential for influence, with the concept of a “Content Service Enterprise” (CSE).</p>
<p>The Final Report defined a CSE as a media content provider which has more than 500,000 Australian users per month, and $50m <em>per annum</em> of revenue from Australian-sourced professional content.</p>
<p>Interestingly, the 15 companies that met these guidelines are all conventional media businesses. But the CSE label could in principle be extended to companies such as Telstra, Google and Apple, depending upon where thresholds are set and future growth trajectories.</p>
<p>If the CSE concept were extended to global media companies, the question would arise of Australian jurisdictional authority over these businesses. Rather than maintaining the current fiction of unenforceable laws, it may be that <em>deeming</em> provisions could exist so that decisions made elsewhere could be applicable under Australian laws and regulations. </p>
<p>An example applies with computer games, where classifications developed in North America or Europe could be deemed to apply to games sold in Australia. Another version of deeming would be to recognise the classifications given to media content by online stores such as Apple iTunes or the Google Android platform, subject to approval of the standards applied by the Australian regulator.</p>
<h2>Regulating the regulator</h2>
<p>Much attention has been given to the question of “who regulates”. One message that came through from the National Classification Review was that Australians were less concerned with who classified different media than with the question of trusting those doing it to have an appropriate professional distance from corporate self-interest.</p>
<p>Another difficulty is that convergent media policy brings together different organisational cultures and traditions of regulation. So what looks like deregulation for broadcasters can look like more regulation from the point of view of newspapers. And naturally each sector will present what is in their interests as being in the public interest more broadly.</p>
<p>But even these traditions of media policy horse-trading, which are a long standing feature of the Australian media policy landscape, are changing. </p>
<p>Whereas it is still pretty clear who constitutes the television industry or the newspaper industry, it is less clear what constitutes digital content or social media industries.</p>
<p>Meeting with Apple, Google, Facebook or Microsoft introduces you to very different corporate entities, with very different corporate cultures, business models, and relationships to their consumers. </p>
<p>Establishing a new regulatory framework for convergent media raises not only the challenges of established media operating across different platforms, but the ever-growing fluidity attached to the concept of “media” itself.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/7251/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Terry Flew headed the National Classification Scheme Review for the Australian Law Reform Commission, whose final report, Classification - Content Regulation and Convergent Media was released in March 2012. </span></em></p>It’s been a remarkably busy year for Australian media policy. There have been three major reports released that address the future of media policy and regulation in the context of convergent media: the…Terry Flew, Professor of Media and Communications, Queensland University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/28352012-02-20T03:29:53Z2012-02-20T03:29:53ZR18+ classification for videogames … the quest continues<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/7784/original/zsnh8q73-1329447234.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The gaming industry's decade-long journey might soon be over.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Bethesda Softworks</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Late last week Federal Home Affairs Minister Jason Clare <a href="http://www.aph.gov.au/hansard/reps/dailys/dr150212.pdf">introduced a bill to parliament</a> that takes Australia one step closer to an R18+ classification for videogames. No sooner had the classification bill been introduced than the Coalition responded by <a href="http://www.kotaku.com.au/2012/02/the-coalition-push-the-r18-bill-to-an-inquiry/">calling for an inquiry</a> into the bill.</p>
<p>These are just the latest developments in a saga that’s been running for the best part of a decade. But if everything goes to plan, we could see R18+ games on Australian shelves by January 2013.</p>
<p>So <a href="https://theconversation.com/fair-game-why-we-should-back-an-r18-classification-732">why do we even need an R18+ classification for video games</a>? Well as it stands, the highest rating that can be applied to a videogame in Australia is <a href="http://www.classification.gov.au/www/cob/classification.nsf/Page/ClassificationMarkings_ClassificationMarkingsonFilmandComputerGames_ClassificationMarkingsonFilmandComputerGames">MA15+</a>. Games with content exceeding the <a href="http://www.comlaw.gov.au/Details/F2008C00126">MA15+ definition</a> must be “refused classification”. And any game that is refused classification cannot legally be sold or played in Australia (of course this doesn’t stop players <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/games/blogs/screenplay/split-screen-strange-customs-20110318-1bz93.html">ordering such games from overseas</a>).</p>
<p>In an <a href="https://theconversation.com/video-gamers-kill-cinema-box-office-suspects-young-old-male-female-1711">increasingly sophisticated game market</a>, Australia’s lack of an R18+ rating has led to <a href="http://refused-classification.com/censorship/games/a-to-z-listing.html">a number of games being refused classification</a>. </p>
<p>Most of these are mainstream releases that are readily available to adults in other countries. One such game is Syndicate, which was <a href="http://refused-classification.com/censorship/games/s.html#syndicate">refused classification in Australia in December 2011</a> because of “violence that was high in impact”. This first-person shooter is readily available to adults in other jurisdictions – it’s <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/feb/16/synicate-games-review?cat=technology&type=article">available in the UK</a>, for instance, with an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/18_certificate%20%E2%80%93%20for%20people%2018-years-old%20and%20above">“18 certificate”</a>.</p>
<p>Publishers who want to sell games that have been refused classification in Australia are then forced to modify the games to make them suitable for an MA15+ audience.</p>
<p>Imagine if there was no R18+ classification for film. Well-known titles such as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirty_Harry">Dirty Harry</a>, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulp_Fiction">Pulp Fiction</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fight_Club">Fight Club</a> would be banned in Australia, or shoe-horned into a lower classification because they fall outside the MA15+ category guidelines. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ewwtznVkSxA?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Syndicate was refused classification in Australia due to violence that’s “high in impact”.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It’s been a long and bumpy road for people who want to see a change to Australia’s videogame classification laws.</p>
<p>As Jason Clare commented while <a href="http://www.aph.gov.au/hansard/reps/latesthansard/rhansard.pdf">introducing the bill to parliament</a>, a campaign to introduce an R18+ rating for games has been underway for ten years.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/video-game-classification-its-time-we-all-grew-up-1822">back-and-forth debates</a> between the pro- and anti-R18+ camps has been going on for just as long, leaving much of the games industry with a real sense of <a href="http://blogs.crikey.com.au/game-on/2012/02/16/behind-the-rhetoric-of-the-r18-debate/">R18+ fatigue</a>.</p>
<p>But in December 2009 <a href="http://palgn.com.au/15721/r18-discussion-paper-released/">a discussion paper</a> was released by then Home Affairs Minister Brendan O'Connor, which opened the issue to public consultation. </p>
<p>Almost a year later, in November 2010, <a href="http://www.ema.gov.au/www/ministers/RWPAttach.nsf/VAP/(689F2CCBD6DC263C912FB74B15BE8285)%7EFINAL+REPORT.pdf/$file/FINAL+REPORT.pdf">a report</a> about the consultation showed that of the 58,437 submissions, 98% were in support of introducing an R18+ rating.</p>
<p>Despite this, and despite <a href="http://www.igea.net/2010/12/government-poll-supports-an-r18-classification/">a telephone poll</a> showing 80% of respondents in support of the new classification, the then South Australian Attorney-General Michael Atkinson continued to oppose the changes. (Changes to the classification scheme can only be made if there is a consensus among all state and territory attorneys-general.)</p>
<p>But following the 2010 South Australian election, Mr Atkinson stood down and John Rau took over as South Australian Attorney-General. Mr Rau is a supporter of an R18+ classification for videogames, <a href="http://au.gamespot.com/video/r18-classification-interview-with-john-rau-6324916/">much to the delight</a> of gamers in the pro-R18+ camp.</p>
<p>And then, in July 2011, at a Standing Committee of Attorneys-General meeting, all states except NSW voted to support <a href="http://www.ag.gov.au/www/cob/classification.nsf/Page/InformationCentre_ProposeddraftGuidelinesforR18+ComputerGames">draft guidelines</a> for an R18+ rating. The NSW attorney-general initially abstained but has since <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/technology/articles/2011/08/10/3290150.htm">indicated his support</a> for the change.</p>
<p>So with support from the states and territories, and a bill currently in the parliament, the way seems clear for the introduction of an R18+ rating for videogames. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/T53X7WXwbaE?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>But, of course, the journey is not yet over. It will take months before we see R18+ games on Australian shelves. For one, the <a href="http://www.aph.gov.au/house/info/infosheets/is07.pdf">passage of the bill through parliament</a> can be complex and involve more debate and potentially even more community consultation. The Coalition’s request of an inquiry – as announced in a <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/edhusicMP/status/169683534557102080">tweet by Labor MP Ed Husic</a> – will send the bill to a Standing Committee for further discussion.</p>
<p>Once the Bill passes the House of Representatives it must then go to the Senate, where it will follow a similar process. The bill may be sent off to a Senate Committee, with even more discussion and potentially consultation and reports.</p>
<p>This process can take weeks to months, and may be stalled by the passage of other pieces of legislation and the sitting pattern of parliament.</p>
<p>According to a spokesperson from the Attorney-General’s Department the bill is due to come into effect from January 1, 2013. Each state and territory then needs to decide whether it will allow the sale of the R18+ games in its jurisdiction. This will require the states and territories to modify their own legislation, which could take several months.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/7790/original/hrh567sf-1329455022.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/7790/original/hrh567sf-1329455022.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/7790/original/hrh567sf-1329455022.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/7790/original/hrh567sf-1329455022.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/7790/original/hrh567sf-1329455022.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/7790/original/hrh567sf-1329455022.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/7790/original/hrh567sf-1329455022.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Hamster Factor</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Existing games can be reclassified if submitted for reclassification by the publisher, the minister, or an “aggrieved person” – someone whose interest goes beyond personal or intellectual concerns.</p>
<p>Games such as <a href="http://www.l4d.com/blog/">Left 4 Dead 2</a> – which was <a href="http://www.refused-classification.com/censorship/games/left-4-dead-games-series.html#left-4-dead-2">refused classification because of violent content</a> that did not fit into the MA15+ rating – could be reclassified within a new R18+ rating – assuming they are resubmitted.</p>
<p>But there is no guarantee that all games that were refused classification will be granted an R18+ classification under the new guidelines. </p>
<p>One game, Marc Ecko’s Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure, was refused classification in 2006 after <a href="http://refused-classification.com/censorship/games/getting-up-contents-under-pressure-marc-ecko.html">the Classification Board ruled</a> the game “promotes anti-social behaviour”. Specifically, the player progressed through the game by spraying trains and walls with graffiti – an offence under Australian law.</p>
<p>The draft guidelines approved by the attorneys-general would still refuse classification to games that actively encourage drug abuse or criminal behaviour. For this reason, Getting Up would probably still be banned under a R18+ classification.</p>
<p>The battle for an R18+ classification for videogames in Australia has been something of an epic, but the journey’s not over yet. There are still plenty more rocks and potholes to navigate before we start seeing R18+ games in local stores.</p>
<p><strong>Further reading:</strong></p>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.r18games.com.au/">Australia needs an R18+ for video games</a></li>
<li><a href="https://theconversation.com/video-game-classification-its-time-we-all-grew-up-1822">Videogame classification? It’s time we all grew up</a></li>
</ul><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/2835/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>I have no vested interest or relations with industry beyond my research interests. I do not receive any funding from the game industry.</span></em></p>Late last week Federal Home Affairs Minister Jason Clare introduced a bill to parliament that takes Australia one step closer to an R18+ classification for videogames. No sooner had the classification…Sam Hinton, Assistant Professor in Media Arts, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/35942011-09-30T03:37:29Z2011-09-30T03:37:29ZBringing media classification into the digital era<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/3935/original/Computer_lego_Flickr_kennymatic.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Australia's classification system has been updated to ensure the audience can judge whether content is appropriate for them.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Flickr/kennymatic</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Media classification in Australia is being dragged into the digital world. At the moment it’s based on analog legislation, unsuited for today’s convergent media. But <a href="http://www.alrc.gov.au/publications/national-classification-scheme-review-dp-77">proposals unveiled today</a> will transform the system, helping the public to judge what content they, and their children, should engage with.</p>
<p>Laws have operated around the principle of classification since the 1970s, and a comprehensive review of that system has not been undertaken since the ALRC’s <a href="http://www.alrc.gov.au/report-55">1991 report</a> into censorship and classification. </p>
<p>That report played a key role in shaping the <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/cfacga1995489/">Classification Act</a> and the current activities of the <a href="http://www.classification.gov.au/">Classification Board</a>.</p>
<h2>Reviewing legislation </h2>
<p>At the request of the Federal Attorney-General, Robert McClelland, the Australian Law Reform Commission commenced a <a href="http://www.attorneygeneral.gov.au/www/ministers/mcclelland.nsf/Page/MediaReleases_2011_FirstQuarter_24March2011-ReviewofNationalClassificationSchemestarts">Review of the National Classification Scheme</a> in March this year. </p>
<p>This review has established that the current classification scheme has involved a series of ad hoc and incremental responses to much bigger transformations in the media landscape. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.alrc.gov.au/">ALRC</a> considers that the major principles that have guided media classification in Australia remain important ideas. </p>
<p>We must continue to balance the rights of adults to make informed media choices with the protection of children. Where necessary, there can also be a need to restrict access to some media content on the basis of community standards.</p>
<h2>Challenge of the internet</h2>
<p>The change that stands out above all else is the rise of the internet and large-scale access to high-speed broadband. </p>
<p>It previously made sense to think about discrete media industries, which produced content only accessible from particular devices such as radios and TVs, or in particular places such as cinemas. But we now live in a world of pervasive media convergence, where the same content can be accessed across multiple devices, or multiple forms of content accessed from the same device. </p>
<p>Whereas most media were largely national, and it was relatively easy to trace media content available back to particular Australian-based distributors, media globalisation has now complicated the communications landscape enormously.</p>
<h2>Media convergence</h2>
<p>Responses to the <a href="http://www.alrc.gov.au/publications/national-classification-scheme-review-ip-40">ALRC Issues Paper</a> confirmed that many stakeholders – particularly those from industry – view the current classification system as ill-equipped to address the challenges. </p>
<p>Lines of responsibility are fragmented, and costs and regulatory burdens are historically based rather than responsive to community standards and expectations. </p>
<p>Failure to reform the classification framework runs the risk of damaging Australian creative industries in an increasingly globalised media environment. </p>
<h2>The proposals</h2>
<p>The ALRC Discussion Paper released today contains 44 proposals relating to a proposed new National Classification Scheme.</p>
<p>It suggests that at its heart will sit a new Classification of Media Content Act. It will identify what content needs to be classified, who should do it, and who has responsibility for breaches of the guidelines. </p>
<p>The proposed framework envisages a greater role for industry in classifying content, and the development of co-regulatory codes, along the lines of those which have operated in the television industry for almost 20 years.</p>
<p>There are also measures proposed to remove the “double handling” of media content – the need to reclassify films and TV programs when they are re-released as DVDs. </p>
<p>The aim is to allow regulators to focus on “higher level” classifications, such as <a href="http://www.ag.gov.au/www/cob/classification.nsf/Page/ClassificationMarkings_ClassificationMarkingsonFilmandComputerGames_ClassificationMarkingsonFilmandComputerGames">R18+</a> material and content that may be <a href="http://www.acma.gov.au/WEB/STANDARD..PC/pc=PC_90102">refused classification</a> (RC). </p>
<p>The ALRC proposes harmonisation of the current complex <a href="http://www.comlaw.gov.au/Details/F2005L01284">array of classification guidelines</a> for films, TV programs, computer games, publications and online content around a common set of markings and criteria. </p>
<h2>Age-based classification</h2>
<p>In particular, we also propose more age-based delineation of classification categories in order to provide parents with better information about what content is age appropriate for their children. </p>
<p>This involves the introduction of a new T 13+ category – T for “teen”, replacing M – as well as a PG 8+ category and a specialist “C” category for specifically children’s content. </p>
<p>This will make the current blurry distinctions between the PG, M and MA15+ categories clearer, meeting the important consumer information role performed by media classification. </p>
<p>For the ALRC inquiry to date, a very significant driver of public participation has been the <a href="http://theconversation.com/video-game-classification-its-time-we-all-grew-up-1822">absence of an R18+ classification</a> for computer games. </p>
<p>Its absence was a classic case study in pre-internet forms of regulation of digital media, based upon a contentious understanding of the nature of interactivity and how it may impact upon players. </p>
<h2>Across the board</h2>
<p>One of the principles that the ALRC has been developing is that of platform neutrality. By this we mean that the focus of classification should be on content rather than the media platform used for its delivery. </p>
<p>The challenge is that the internet operates very differently from the analog mass communications platforms. </p>
<p>Content is dynamic and converged. Distribution is global rather than nationally based, and media users are creators and distributors of content and not just its passive recipients. </p>
<h2>Adapting to the digital world</h2>
<p>We also live in a time of rapid acceleration of digital media innovation and high-speed broadband, delivering not just more content, but content across a multiplicity of platforms.</p>
<p>As more of this material comes into the home, it blurs distinctions between public and private, as well as restrictions on access based on age verification. </p>
<p>Following on from the review, it is proposed that ongoing research be undertaken into the standards of the Australian community in relation to the classification of media content. </p>
<p>The intention is to ground media classification in a better understanding of what Australians actually think, and value about a classification system, in a context of rapid technological and market change. </p>
<p>The Commission <a href="http://www.alrc.gov.au/publications/national-classification-scheme-review-dp-77">encourages submissions</a> in response to its questions and proposals before 18th November 2011.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/3594/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Terry Flew does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Media classification in Australia is being dragged into the digital world. At the moment it’s based on analog legislation, unsuited for today’s convergent media. But proposals unveiled today will transform…Terry Flew, Professor of Media and Communications, Queensland University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/18222011-06-19T21:10:25Z2011-06-19T21:10:25ZVideo game classification? It’s time we all grew up<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/1730/original/RodrigoFavera.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=44%2C125%2C919%2C658&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The average Australian gamer is now more than 30 years old.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">RodrigoFavera</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>After many years of debate and deliberation Australia might finally be about to receive an <a href="http://theconversation.com/fair-game-why-we-should-back-an-r18-classification-732">R18+ rating for video games</a>.</p>
<p>On July 21 and 22 the Standing Committee of Attorneys-General (SCAG) meeting will review
<a href="http://www.kotaku.com.au/2011/05/brendan-oconnor-releases-draft-r18-guidelines/">draft guidelines for the adults-only classification</a> proposed in May by Federal Home Affairs Minister Brendan O'Connor.</p>
<p>The proposed guidelines are loosely-worded but do give an indication of what an R18+ classification might allow:</p>
<ul>
<li>So-called “themes” (such as suicide) would face no restriction</li>
<li>“Sexual violence” would be allowed when justified by context (e.g. being part of the game’s plot)</li>
<li>Sex, nudity and drug use would be permitted</li>
<li>Violence would be allowed as long as it doesn’t offend “morality, decency and propriety generally accepted by reasonable adults” </li>
</ul>
<p>Apart from these antiquarian (and subjective) restrictions, the proposed R18+ category would bring Australia into line with global classification systems.</p>
<h2>Beyond the realms of decency</h2>
<p>Even under the new guidelines, certain games could still be <a href="http://www.refused-classification.com/">“refused classification”</a> making their sale illegal in Australia.</p>
<p>Any of the following could consign a game to the sin bin: </p>
<ul>
<li>Instructing players in matters of crime or paedophile activity, or promoting these</li>
<li>Sexual violence linked to incentives and rewards</li>
<li>Depictions of bestiality, incest fantasies or offensive fetishes</li>
<li>Detailed, realistic drug use or drug use linked to incentives and rewards</li>
</ul>
<p>Overall, the draft guidelines give the impression of the establishment attempting to come to terms with the games culture of the late 1990s, but certainly not of the contemporary gaming situation.</p>
<p>SCAG will debate the merits of the guidelines and if a unanimous agreement is reached, we might see the revisions taken to the <a href="http://www.classification.gov.au/">Classification Board</a> by September. </p>
<p>Even then, it would likely take a few months before the new ratings come into effect, meaning we wouldn’t see R18+ games on Australian shelves until early 2012. </p>
<h2>Taming the beast</h2>
<p>But even the long-awaited introduction of an R18+ classification for games is unlikely to ease anti-video game hysteria in the media today.</p>
<p>A few days after the release of the R18+ draft guidelines, Fairfax journalist Asher Moses <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/games/nintendo-child-porn-game-pg-in-australia-20110531-1fdrc.html">stoked a degree of controversy</a> by suggesting that fighting game <a href="http://teamninja-studio.com/doadimensions/us/">Dead or Alive Dimensions</a> – a launch title for the <a href="http://www.nintendo.com/3ds">Nintendo 3DS hand-held console</a> – contained child pornography.</p>
<p>Moses was quickly assailed on Twitter by numerous people <a href="http://twitter.com/#!/seamus/status/79091398896390145">calling him out for the “wowserist” piece</a> designed to generate cheap hits.</p>
<p>The ABC’s Cassie White followed suit with <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/06/01/3232865.htm">a similarly alarmist piece</a> Talk radio soon began its predictable festival of idiocy as callers were prompted to decry the game without even knowing a thing about it.</p>
<p>But while headlines such as “‘Child porn’ Nintendo game gets PG rating” were being thrown around, the truth was far less sensational.</p>
<p>Dead or Alive Dimensions – as with other games in the Dead or Alive franchise – features anime-styled, large-breasted women, some of which appear (but are not listed as being) younger than 18 years old. </p>
<p>The game allows the player to take photographs of various characters (including the apparently-underage characters) from a range of angles including the possibility of “up-skirt” photos.</p>
<p>While it could be argued that giving players this ability is both tasteless and inappropriate for the game’s PG rating, it is hardly child pornography.</p>
<p>Arguably as a result of alarmist reports (such as those of Moses and White), Dead or Alive Dimensions was pulled from shelves and has since <a href="http://www.kotaku.com.au/2011/06/dead-or-alive-dimensions-currently-being-re-rated-hoping-for-an-ma15-classification/">been resubmitted</a> for classification by Nintendo.</p>
<p>With any luck, we’re not far away from bringing Australia’s video game classification scheme in line with the rest of the developed world. If it goes through, it will be a recognition, finally, that the average Australian gamer is, in fact, a mature adult.</p>
<p>Whether an adults-only classification will lead to maturity on the part of the media remains to be seen.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/1822/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christian McCrea does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>After many years of debate and deliberation Australia might finally be about to receive an R18+ rating for video games. On July 21 and 22 the Standing Committee of Attorneys-General (SCAG) meeting will…Christian McCrea, Lecturer + Researcher, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/7322011-04-19T04:03:27Z2011-04-19T04:03:27ZFair game? Why we should back an R18+ classification<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/582/original/2175939881_13736c2fa2_z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Are adult gamers being unfairly targeted by the current classification system?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sibeckham/Flickr</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>If you are in any way exposed to computer games on a regular basis, it won’t have escaped your attention that Australia does not have an R18+ classification for video games.</p>
<p>This is particularly strange when you consider films and DVDs <a href="http://www.classification.gov.au/">can be rated</a> anywhere from “G” to “R18+”. The highest rating a video game can attract is MA15+ (suitable for players of 15 years old and above).</p>
<p>Video games classified as “adults only” elsewhere in the world – such as <a href="http://www.r18games.com.au/gta/">Grand Theft Auto IV</a> – either sneak in as MA15+ or are <a href="http://www.refused-classification.com/">refused classification</a> entirely: banned from sale or distribution.</p>
<h2>A broken system</h2>
<p>Our classification system has failed the children of Australia. It tells them that curb-stomping, gut-mashing horrors (such as Gears of War 3) are all fine under the MA15+ category and encourages them to seek out unreleased games through illegal means (using <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BitTorrent_(protocol),%20for%20example">BitTorrent</a>.</p>
<p>Our classification system has failed adult Australians (in the sense they can’t get hold of games they might otherwise buy) by being one of the most restrictive classification schemes for games in the Western world. </p>
<h2>Driving for change</h2>
<p>For the last year, <a href="http://www.gamers4croydon.org/">a concentrated push</a> has occurred to get the classification laws changed through the various Attorneys-General around the country. </p>
<p>Popular support for the change is absurdly high – 80-90% in six separate <a href="http://www.ema.gov.au/www/agd/agd.nsf/Page/Consultationsreformsandreviews_AnR18+ClassificationforComputerGames-PublicConsultation">large sample studies</a> in that time.</p>
<p>Yet, sadly, the <a href="http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/feeding-kids-on-a-diet-of-video-game-junk/">same old arguments</a> for the failed censorship system appear time and again by pro-censorship advocates.</p>
<p>One such advocate, Barbara Biggins, CEO of the <a href="http://www.youngmedia.org.au/">Australian Council on Children and the Media</a>, wrote <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/45770.html">a piece</a> recently accusing the pro-R18+ lobby of manipulating public opinion on the issue. </p>
<p>Her point was that where previously pro-R18+ advocates made the case for adult freedoms, they were now pushing the case that the R18+ would protect children. This subtle shift of tactic, she asserted, was a manipulation of the facts for political purposes.</p>
<p>I don’t blame Biggins or hold her position in any great contempt. It’s a very familiar set of arguments from a very familiar debate. In fact, it’s the position that’s brought us to where we are. </p>
<h2>A web of violence</h2>
<p>Thanks to the internet, children and young adults now have near-unlimited access to hyper-violent media including games, pornography and recipes for all manner of mischief. </p>
<p>But games need to be viewed in some kind of context. A young adult of 15 who can film fights in the playground and upload them to YouTube is not going to be protected psychologically by missing out on a <a href="http://au.ps3.ign.com/articles/115/1152077p1.html">banned Mortal Kombat game</a>. Nor are they going to leap into a whirlpool of violence as a result of witnessing the fight.</p>
<h2>Media evolution</h2>
<p>We know a lot more about how violence in media works than we did 20 years ago: <a href="http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080418/005355882.shtml">playing violent video games does not create a functional difference in empathy in players</a> – witnessing violence does. </p>
<p>When <a href="http://vgresearcher.wordpress.com/2008/11/04/longitudinal-study-of-violent-anderson-et-al-2008/">longitudinal studies are done on video-game violence</a> they are often conducted as paid research with pre-determined outcomes, and are deeply flawed and ideological. </p>
<h2>The power of controversy</h2>
<p>We have a situation now where many games are designed to be controversial – in order to help sales – and violence is becoming a standard of pride. </p>
<p>The longer such controversial games are being created, the more the most violent and gruesome of these gain cultural power.</p>
<p>And given how capable young adults are of finding games through illegal means, continued video-game censorship is a generational timebomb. </p>
<p><em>What’s your view on video-game classification in Australia? Leave your comments below. Do you conduct research in this area? Contact <a href="mailto:pitch@theconversation.edu.au">pitch@theconversation.edu.au</a></em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/732/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christian McCrea does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>If you are in any way exposed to computer games on a regular basis, it won’t have escaped your attention that Australia does not have an R18+ classification for video games. This is particularly strange…Christian McCrea, Lecturer + Researcher, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.