from a comparison of the Australian version and the UK version:

In the UK version there are blood pools when killing people. This occurs when killing another person, whether it be a pedestrian or an enemy. Blood slowly oozes out of a person on the ground and in my opinion, makes killing more disturbing. When walking in a blood pool you get to see bloody footprints. Bloody tire tracks can also be created by driving through a pool of blood. This does not exist in the locally released version. Although there are blood splatters there are no blood pools.

When having sex with hookers you get to see it taking place (i.e sex animations) and can choose between a blow job, hand job and regular intercourse. In the AU version you only get to see the car bounce from a rear view of the car and can't choose your services.

When shooting people light blood patches appear on their bodies, this basically represents bruises and bullet wounds. This is non-existent in the AU release.

Australia's Catholic church has taken a swipe at foul-mouthed British chef Gordon Ramsay and demanded his reality television shows be either taken off air or shown at a later time.

The move comes as Australia's Parliament holds an inquiry into swearing on television, prompted by Ramsay's antics in his series Kitchen Nightmares and Hell's Kitchen.

One episode broadcast recently featured Ramsay using a four-letter expletive more than 80 times, while he also shouts at a chef saying: You French pig.

There can be no excuse for vilification of this sort. We conclude that this episode should never have been aired on Australian television, the Catholic church in the southern city of Adelaide said in a submission to the parliamentary inquiry.

Ramsay's reality programmes are popular ratings drawcards in Australia, but they have also prompted complaints from schools and parent groups who are angry that the shows are broadcast at times when children may be watching television.

Two of the Ramsay programmes air at 8.30pm, while one of the shows, Hell's Kitchen, where contestants compete to win a restaurant, is aired at a later 9.30pm time slot.

Conservative Senator Cory Bernardi initiated a Senate inquiry into swearing after his office received several complaints about Ramsay's programmes.

The inquiry has received more than 50 public submissions, with the overwhelming majority in favour of tighter regulation and calling for the Nine television network, which broadcasts the programmes, to censor Ramsay.

But the Council for Civil Liberties in Australia's largest state of New South Wales said it has no problems with Ramsay's programmes, which regularly attract more than one million viewers: This inquiry is yet another attempt to restrict the freedom of expression of ordinary Australians. Not everyone is offended by coarse language.

The Australian censored version of Grand Theft Auto IV doesn't show player sex, though the act remains implied with "car rocking" visuals and potty mouth dialogue.

According to GameSpot, in Australian versions of GTA IV, Niko can indeed pick up prostitutes, but once he takes said sex worker to a secluded area, the game camera shifts to a tight shot of the rear of the vehicle the pair are in and cannot be moved.

Prostitution upgrades resulting in superior player health have also been removed from the Australian version.

The US and international versions of GTA IV take the implied sexual act a step further, however, by showing fully clothed dry humping (also called frottage) scenes that simulate the motions of intercourse. There is no nudity in the Mature rated game, however, only scantily clad women.

As an alternative to traditional food power ups found in video games, Grand Theft Auto III introduced the concept of prostitution power-ups back in 2001.

New South Wales police have raided a number of adult shops in Sydney's Blacktown and St Marys over the last week, ostensibly looking for X18+ videos and DVDs.

It is illegal to sell films that have been classified X18+ by the Federal government, in NSW. Most people do not know that non-violent, sexually explicit films showing consenting adults, are illegal to sell in NSW or any of the Australian states for that matter.

It is estimated that up to 50 police officers spent at least 10 hours each performing these raids and that at least another 200 police hours will be spent on classifying and processing the thousands of DVDs that were seized. Approximately 30 robberies and a dozen assaults would have taken place in the Blacktown and St Mary’s precincts during the time that these raids were enacted.

Mostly this is not the fault of the police. It’s the fault of the state government who would rather that they spend unnecessary amounts of time policing morality - like censorship breaches. What makes this situation worse is that many of the police raids are carried out at the request of the federal government’s Censorship Board. The very same organisation that classifies X18+ films as OK for adults at a federal level.

The Board’s Community Liaison Officer, Ron Robertson, is supposed to go around and visit retailers and inform them if they are selling material outside of the law. Instead, he now takes it upon himself to encourage state police to waste their time busting adult retailers for selling x18+ films that his own Board has classified! If this sounds like bureaucracy gone mad, you’re right. The NSW Attorney General should get out and about and talk to a few of the 30% of the state’s adults who regularly buy and watch X18+ films. And the Federal censorship Minister, ( former NSW Attorney General) Bob Debus, needs to have a serious talk to all state Attorneys about the massive waste of police resources in each state on policing the sale of adult films.

Australian parenting and education experts have savaged the release of a new video game based on schoolyard bullying, which features animated blood and violence, sexual themes, crude language, and alcohol and tobacco use.

Bully: Scholarship Edition pits schoolchildren at a fictitious boarding school against one another in a violent struggle for control of the campus.

The game's rating is listed on an Australian government classification website as M, meaning it does not carry the age restriction attached to the higher MA15+ rating.

Parenting Australia chief executive Jane King described the game as "disturbing" and said it should never have been released: It's scary, it's outrageous, it's gross. I do think the classification system needs to be reviewed. I would be very concerned if my 13-year-old son played a game like that. I think the message of solving violence with violence is extremely disturbing. Ms King encouraged parents not to buy the game.

Australian Education Union president Angelo Gavrielatos said teachers worldwide were vehemently opposed to the game and the union had joined a coalition of eight teacher organisations from countries such as South Korea, the United States and Britain denouncing its release: What we are concerned about is the continuing production and development of such games that glorify violence and bullying. There's a point where the corporate world must take some responsibility to regulate these games. In a world where the issues of bullying and violence are a concern, the production of these games is not acceptable.

A spokeswoman for the Australian Classification Board said the game was approved because the themes were: moderate in playing and viewing and were justified by context. During the game the player is not encouraged to attack innocent bystanders or undertake acts of bullying and is not rewarded for doing so. The missions players undertake are generally about thwarting acts of bullying, exploitation or discrimination. If the player does bully another player out of context a punishment type bar increases and when full it causes the character to be apprehended by authority figures.

Analyst and gamer John Greentree said critics of Bully: Scholarship Edition might change their tune if they played the game. The purpose of the game is not to be a bully but survive a school that is full of bullies. The point of the game is to show that all groups are capable of being bullies and bullied. It's pathetic that your scare-mongering will actually scare people away from this sort of game that actually has real lessons.

The Australian censor has issued a report on its decision to award a MA15+ rating for a pre-cut version of Grand Theft Auto IV.

The report does not identify what was pre-cut though. [Also Spoiler Warning!]:

VIOLENCE

Violence is relatively frequent and strong in playing impact.

During the game, the player (as lead character Niko Bellic) is required to undertake various missions, mostly involving criminal activity, in order to develop contacts, make money and protect his cousin Roman. These include pick-ups and drop-offs, killing / protecting various people, stealing, racing, chasing, eating, drinking, going out and dating. A number of tasks involve drugs (for example retrieving a stash of cocaine for a dealer) and violence (for example, rescuing Roman from a kidnapper).

Violence includes hand to hand combat (basic punching and kicking) and more regularly involves use of various weapons. These include knives, baseball bats, a nightstick, pistols, machine guns, shot guns, rifles, grenades and rocket launchers. The player is able to use these weapons to inflict injury on other participants which results in frequent blood spray. Blood spray occurs as victims are attacked and is also depicted on objects such as floors and walls. Blood pooling occurs under bodies that are shot at after death however no post mortem damage (such as decapitation or dismemberment) is possible. These is also infrequent blood splatter on the camera lens as the player manoeuvres their way through missions involving killing.

A less frequent example of violence includes the ability of the player to set an enemy alight causing them to burn. The victim is shown flailing and on fire before they fall to the ground. Bodies remain as long as the player lingers in a particular scene, however after this, they disappear.

As the violence is relatively frequent, causing blood spray and injury detail, the impact is strong.

LANGUAGE

Coarse language is frequent. Aggressive and/or strong coarse language is infrequent.

During the game play the characters are heard to use "fuck" language, primarily in a naturalistic tone but occasionally in an aggressive manner. This, coupled with the infrequent use of the word "cunt" (as well as some visual use written on a strip club wall) creates an impact which is strong.

OTHER MATTERS CONSIDERED

In the majority view of the board the game contains drug and sexual references, which although moderate in impact, warrant flagging at the MA15+ classification.

These include a scene (with no player interaction) where a drug dealer is depicted implicitly, then explicitly, snorting lines of white powder (implied to be cocaine) from a table and the involvement of Niko in various missions dealing with drugs.

Further, there are sexual references which require flagging at the MA15+ classification. These include a scene (with no player interaction) at the beginning of the game depicting a woman in lingerie whipping a man in his underwear, tied to a bed and the general ability of the player to go on 'dates' and have sex with a 'girlfriend', to pick up a prostitute and have sex with her and the ability to attend a strip club and pay for a lap dance.

Australian Channel has received nine official complaints from the 1.25 million viewers who tuned each week into its gangland war series Underbelly.

But the network will still be investigated by the Australian Communications and Media Authority after a religious group alleged the show breached its 8.30pm M classification.

An ACMA spokesman confirmed Nine would be investigated after the South Australian branch of Christian group Festival of Light lodged a complaint.

Under the rules, viewers must first lodge a complaint with the networks, and if they are dissatisfied with the response in 30 days they can take it to ACMA, which is then obliged to act.

Nine's chief censorship officer Richard Lyle said the network would mount a strong defence and maintained the show fit within the strict ACMA guidelines: The sex scenes and language must be appropriate, but the fact is Underbelly is not fiction and it honestly portrays how they behaved and were able to get away with what they did.

The ACMA spokesman said the investigation would take three to four months, by which time the 13-part series would have finished.

Senator Steve Fielding is obsessed with pornography. His greatest direct contribution to public policy since he was "elected" was to badger the Howard Government into wasting tens of millions of dollars on the ludicrous Netalert internet filter scheme.

Now he has managed to impose the views of his bizarre monotheistic cult on other Senators and their staff. Since 28 March, Senators have been prevented from accessing "inappropriate" internet content at the request of Senator Fielding, who has convinced Senate President Alan Ferguson to impose the same filter as that in place for bureaucrats.

Accordingly, anything related to sex, drugs, weapons or other "inappropriate content", regardless of what it actually is, is blocked.

Senator Lyn Allison has written to Ferguson demanding to know why Fielding was permitted to impose his own reactionary view of the online world on other Senators, who determines what is "inappropriate" and how Senators are supposed to do their job properly.

Allison reels off a number of topics now blocked by the Fielding Filth Filter: reproductive health; sexualisation of children; drug abuse and rehabilitation, the opium crop in Afghanistan, weapons trading – all issues of legitimate interest to those engaged in the policy process, and all now blocked as "inappropriate".

The year's most highly-anticipated video game, Grand Theft Auto IV, hits stores on April 29 but many Australian gamers have cancelled their orders.

Already angered by the price of the blockbuster in Australia - $120 compared to $64 in North America - gamers have reacted with outrage to news that developer Rockstar has edited the game for Australia in order to obtain an MA15+ rating.

Many gamers said they cancelled their orders with Australian shops and will import a cheaper, uncut version, flouting the law.

A Rockstar spokesman says a censored version of GTA IV was developed to comply with the Australian classification system, which does not have an R18+ rating. The spokesman declined to reveal what was cut. [There have been unlikely sounding rumours that the game is cut to remove an object being rammed up somebody's arse]

A federal Labor MP has called on the Australian Government to follow France's lead and ban pro-anorexia websites.

Anna Burke said she had been calling for ban on anorexia websites for some time: It's something we really need to explore. This is dangerous information on the internet.

The Government is developing a cyber-safety policy that includes internet service provider filtering for all Australian homes, schools and public computers, but there is no indication that pro-anorexia sites would be included in the "black list" created by the Australian Communications and Media Authority.

Nicola Roxon, the federal Minister for Health and Ageing, said the Government would consider whether any action regarding the sites was appropriate.

But Bruce Billson, the Opposition spokesman for broadband, communications and the digital economy, said it would be difficult to regulate and it was the parents' responsibility: Parents should maintain an active interest in the use of the internet by members of their family.

Supporters and opponents of sex shops see an opportunity for change in the Queensland government's review of legislation on adult shops.

The review has been prompted by the siting of a sex shop opposite a Catholic school in the North Queensland town of Proserpine, which the government currently has no power to prevent.

Announcing the review, Acting Premier Paul Lucas questioned why New South Wales had laws prohibiting sex shops within 200 metres of schools and Queensland did not.

Bravehearts child protection nutter Hetty Johnson said even 200 metres was too close: They should not be put anywhere near schools, they should be in industrial areas. I think even the people that attend them and buy stuff from them might feel a bit more comfortable if it's sort of out of the way and not quite so visible. And we shouldn't be enticing children with these carrots all the time by sticking this kind of adult stuff around their environment.

Eros Foundation spokeswoman Fiona Patton wants the review to look at relaxing the current restrictions on what sex shops can sell: Currently magazines that are available in NSW newsagents are illegal to sell in Queensland, and in fact you can go to jail for selling one.