You can't rate them if you can't get past certain levels of them.
That's the dilemma New Zealand authorities face regarding computer games with excessive sexual or violent content. The nation's chief censor admits many of the games are simply too complex for his staffers to wade through every level of them.
New Zealand law requires an entire game to be viewed in order for it to be classified for its content, but the country's chief censor, Bill Hastings, says it is almost impossible to apply the law to computer games.
"If I bought a computer game and I could play the whole thing in, say, three, four, five hours, I would be ripped off," Hastings says.
Eugene Volokh of UCLA Law School says some options New Zealand may be reviewing to resolve the dilemma include requiring importers of the games to supply cheat sheets to cut through each level of each game, or hiring expert computer game players to play them under the censors' observation.
