Pirate porn and candle wax: review of Australian film classification recommends end to ban on fetishes

Australia should ditch its censorship of certain fetishes and some instances of violence in pornography, according to a review that could open the way to everything from wax fetishes to pirate pornography.

On Wednesday the Albanese government released a review of the classification system handed to the Morrison government three years ago, promising to prioritise reforms to tackle in-game gambling.

Video games containing simulated gambling should be classified at least R18+, which are restricted to adults, while games containing paid loot boxes should be rated M, according to the communications minister, Michelle Rowland.

Rowland announced the commonwealth will seek agreement from the states and territories for the new classifications but has so far not responded in detail to the other recommendations of the report.

The removal of the ban on fetishes was backed by the Classification Board, the Eros Association and the Scarlet Alliance.

That recommendation added to calls from a parliamentary inquiry to require identity and age verification in order to view pornography websites.

The eSafety commissioner has developed a plan for how to achieve age verification, which is now being considered by the government.

In the first tranche of reforms the government will update the classification system to respond to the large volume of online content that is not compliant with the current scheme.

The government intends to expand options for industry to self-classify content, making it simpler and more cost effective for the film, streaming and games industries to classify their content in line with Australian classification guidelines.