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Oi, Harrison. So much great stuff to unpack here and it took me a minute to get to it. First, I'm an attorney in the United States, so it's my position we aren't exactly sending our best to the legislature on state and federal levels. The end result is lots of really slow moving laws to combat emerging issues and threats that are outpaced by the developments in tech etc.

There has to be an intersection where we can protect minors without overly broad generalizations or rules that are easily bypassed, like you mention in China. It reminds me a bit of some porn websites in the US now having to require people's ages or identifies if accessed form some states. That was ostensibly to protect kids, too.

Lastly, I love the juxtaposition of discussing protecting minors from objectionable content and then telling us all about the very not-for-kids RE8. Glad to see you liked the game. You know I'm a Resident Evil guy, and I think the series has both gained and lost something with the transition to first person game. Thanks for writing this!

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Hahah. Yeah, unintentional juxtaposition there. I really wanted to review Mario and Luigi: Brothership. But I have a loose rule of beating a game before writing about it. And I'm really struggling to finish it, as it isn't great.

So... I replayed RE: Village in November and that made the cut instead.

This is so dicey from a policy perspective. The submission period for it was a day (yes, just 24 hours). It passed with little debate. And it excluded video games due to the good graces of government. But, it's insanely popular here. Whether it will work is now our eSafety Commissioners problem, who has been charged with policing it upon introduction.

I didn't include it in my piece, but given your interest, if you'd like to read the actual bill, its here: https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_Legislation/bd/bd2425/25bd39#:~:text=The%20Online%20Safety%20Amendment%20(Social,age%20from%20having%20an%20account.

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Absolutely checking this out. And yes, I picked up Brothership but just couldn’t get into it. A shame since I generally adore the series. Just too many good games out right now

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Mate… I hate to be the bearer of bad news. It’s a bit of a slug. Especially after playing Metaphor.

I’ll do my best to finish it, and it’s slowly getting better, but it’s a tough ask.

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