Banned In China / Australia

It should be noted that Australia is the strictest country in the English-speaking world in terms of censorship. Unlike the US, UK or even NZ; Australia's law on censorship of all media is heavily regulated mostly on grounds of political values that are appropriate in Australia.

• Australia tends to be sensitive to excessive use of drugs.
• Any material that is non-compliant with Australian law are automatically refused classification.
• Pornography released in Australia must be compliant with federal and state laws because at the moment physical sales of hardcore porn is banned in all states except in territories such as the A.C.T (Australian Capital Territory, which is Canberra) and the Northern Territory (except regional aboriginal communities which was imposed under the Northern Territory National Emergency Response in 2007 by the Howard government).

Examples

Anime And Manga

• Magical DoReMi was banned after the end of the second season for "sexual themes" present in later episodes.
• Parallel Paradise was banned for being accused of being child pornography.
• Violence Jack's Evil Town OVA was banned, leaving to Manga Entertainment withholding the entire series from Australia.

Fanfic

• "Agony in Pink", a notorious Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers darkfic which consists almost entirely of Kimberly being graphically raped and tortured to death, nearly led to the entirety of Usenet being blocked in Australia when someone showed it to a Moral Guardian, and sparked a national moral panic over internet porn.

Film

• The Australian Classification Board is essentially Australia's version of the MPAA, but unlike its American counterpart, it is a governmental organization. By law, the ACB must classify a film before it can be sold or exhibited in any form in Australia, although it is legal to own most material that has been refused classification.
  • The ACB has banned a handful of explicit movies, among them Baise Moi, In a Glass Cage, Ken Park, La Blue Girl, Vase de Noces, and John Waters' Pink Flamingos.
  • It has come under fire for cracking down on films with a strong LGBT theme, including Mysterious Skin, whose ban sparked protests from Australian LGBT groups.

Literature

• Bret Easton Ellis' American Psycho is banned in Queensland because the book is rated R18. Everywhere else it can only be sold in a shrink wrap cover.

Live Action TV

• The miniseries Blue Murder was banned in New South Wales between 1995 and 2001, thanks to an injunction brought during Arthur "Neddy" Smith's appeal against his life sentence.
• The first series of Nine Network's Underbelly was banned by judicial order in the state of Victoria (including Melbourne) and from the Internet. One of the show's real-life subjects was involved in an ongoing criminal trial, and there were serious concerns over jury tampering. Even after the conviction, the court forced the network to heavily edit the episodes.

Music

• Cold Chisel's "Khe Sanh" was originally banned from radio in every state except South Australia for presenting a less-than-flattering picture of Australian treatment of Asian immigrants.
• Marianne Faithfull's "Why'd Ya Do It?" was omitted from early pressings of Broken English for its explicit lyrics.

Video Games

• Originally there was no R18+ rating for video games, so any game which was too much for the MA15+ rating would either be refused classification or just be heavily edited. As with film, refusal of classification was tantamount to a ban. The R18+ rating would be introduced in 2013, which allowed Australian releases of the Mortal Kombat reboot and Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge; however, the ratings board can still refuse a classification.
  • Leisure Suit Larry: Magna Cum Laude was unrated due to its strongly suggestive content, concerning a Casanova Wannabe trying to get laid by college co-eds.
  • Left 4 Dead 2 was refused classification on its original release due to excessive violence — based on the German version, which was edited for an even stricter market. When the R18+ rating was introduced, the original uncensored version would be given this rating.
  • Manhunt and Postal are banned due to their violence, themes, and behavior.
  • Aliens vs. Predator (2010) was originally banned, but it was re-rated MA15+ after appeal and left uncut. The irony is that this is now the most lenient rating the game has in any country.
  • The Mortal Kombat reboot (nicknamed Mortal Kombat 9 by fans) was banned in Australia when there was no rating higher than MA15+, and customs were ordered to seize copies. But once the "Komplete Edition" was released, the R18 rating was introduced, and it became the very first game in Australia to be released with an R18 rating.
  • Singles Flirt Up Your Life was banned for its high sexual content that would have been too much for the MA15+ rating.
  • Silent Hill: Homecoming had to have some of the Cruel and Unusual Death scenes toned down to pass OFLC classification. The same censored version was released in Germany.
  • Marc Eckō's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure was banned due to its depiction of graffiti artists.
  • Blitz: The League was Refused Classification for its depiction of anabolic steroids as a stamina booster. It's likely because of this that the sequel never saw an official release in the country.
• The following examples failed to make the cut even after the R18+ rating was introduced, proving that even R18+ has standards.
  • Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number was banned because of an implied rape scene, despite the fact that this particular scene could be turned off in the options menu. Because they felt that it was a vital part of the story, Dennaton Games opted to accept the ACB's opinion and instead told Australian fans to just pirate it.
  • Because Hotline Miami is banned in Australia, the related content for PAYDAY 2 is also unavailable for Australian players, which includes Jacket as a playable character. Though in this case you can contact OVERKILL directly with proof of Australian residency, and they'll give you the content outright.
  • Saints Row IV was banned for containing "interactive, visual depictions of implied sexual violence which are not justified by context" (referring to an alien weapon called the Anal Probe) and "elements of illicit or proscribed drug use related to incentives or rewards" (referring to alien narcotics which give the player superpowers). The game later got a MA release by removing the mission centered on drugs — but not the anal probe weapon, which is still in the game as DLC, which led to accusations of Skewed Priorities.
  • South Park: The Stick of Truth had a similar reaction to an anal probing scene, though in this case it was mostly because the characters involved were minors. The scene was censored out of the Australian release and the game still got an R18+ rating.
  • State of Decay was banned for depicting drug use as health and stamina power-ups, but it was later re-submitted and re-classified R18+ after the drugs were changed to "vitamins".
  • While not involving the government in any way, Target chose to not sell the XBOX One and PS4 versions of Grand Theft Auto V after outcry over the series allowing the player to kill prostitutes.
  • Gal*Gun: Double Peace and Senran Kagura: Estival Versus were pulled from EB Games' stores and website due to their highly sexualized gameplay, though both did manage to receive R18+ ratings completely uncensored from the classification board.
  • Outlast II was originally banned entirely on accident - the developer submitted an alpha of the game that contained "implied sexual violence" which wasn't meant to be in the final game. The proper resubmission got an R18+ rating completely uncensored.
  • We Happy Few was initially Refused Classification due to the game's main objective being viewed as drug use. Australian fans of the game were outraged, labelling the government and the OFLC as "sensitive" by banning the game because they thought the game's main collectable (known as Joy) would influence the use of drugs. The ban was later lifted and the game was approved for an R18+ classification, likely in response to the backlash.
  • The Final Cut version of Disco Elysium was refused classification based on depiction of sex, drug misuse or addiction, crime, cruelty, and violence, as well as showing "revolting or abhorrent phenomena in such a way that they offend against the standards of morality, decency, and propriety generally accepted by reasonable adults". It is worth noting that the original version of Disco Elysium contained all that material too, but had no problems with getting sold in Australia, as it was a digital release only and therefore did not require a submission to the Classification Board, but with The Final Cut getting sold as physical copies in addition to digital, a submission to the Board was obligatory. Eventually, the Australian Classification Review Board would overturn the original refused classification rating, allowing The Final Cut to be sold regularly, as the game developers were successfully able to convince the Review Board that the use of drugs was non-graphic, thematically appropriate for a story about an Addled Addict, and caused drawbacks for the player as well.

Web Original

• Australian Labor Party senator Stephen Conroy, since out of power, took a cue from the Chinese and attempted to push through a law mandating that ISPs block certain blacklisted sites entirely. The Liberal Party had a similar plan when they were in government.
• Encyclopedia Dramatica's page on Aboriginals is apparently blocked on Australian search engines.
• In the wake of the 2019 Christchurch mosque shootings, Telstra, an Australian internet provider, banned access to 4chan, 8chan, Voat, and LiveLeak, as the websites continued to hold footage of the live terrorist attack.

Western Animation

• The Peppa Pig episodes "Mister Skinnylegs" and "Spider's Web" were banned in Australia. They're about befriending spiders, which is highly discouraged in Australia because it's home to some of the world's most venomous spiders. The former was accidentally aired online, and was shown on the Australian Nick Jr feed (which also airs in New Zealand and several Asian countries) until a girl whose younger brother was watching the channel wrote a letter to the channel because people around her brother's age might copy what they saw on the show.
• The Thomas & Friends episode "Henry Spots Trouble", which involves Henry having a fear of chickenpox, was pulled from reruns on ABC after airing twice, due to parents complaining to the network, believing that the episode was promoting an anti-vaccination message. The episode has never been rerun since, though still has been released on DVD.
• Many shows on Cartoon Network have had some of their episodes banned (or at least heavily edited) for content:
  • Adventure Time:
    • "His Hero" was the first episode to have been banned over there due to "promoting violence".
    • "Jake vs. Me-Mow" was banned due to the plot revolving around an assassination attempt.
    • "Ghost Princess" was skipped due to violent themes, including two on-screen deaths.
    • "Love Games" was omitted due to sexual themes, with the plot revolving around Finn and Slime Princess having to prove their love so that Slime Princess would be the heir to the crown and not her sister.
  • My Gym Partner's a Monkey:
    • After the death of Steve Irwin, the episode "Amazon Kevin" was banned, due to this episode parodying him.
  • Regular Show in particular has had a lot of episodes banned there:
    • "Muscle Woman" was banned due to sexual themes, though they eventually aired a censored version.
    • "Jinx" was banned because it references the "Bloody Mary" urban legend and for being too violent (including bloody cuts being visible on Ybgir's victims).
    • "Grave Sights" was banned due to the large amount of zombie violence, with zombies being decapitated and impaled.
    • "Go Viral" is a peculiar case in that there is no obvious reason as to why it was banned. The episode itself is tame by the show's standards, though it did have a lot of imitable behavior.
    • "My Mom" was originally banned due to concerns that it would encourage bullying, but it was later aired intact.
  • The Looney Tunes Show: "Muh-Muh-Muh-Murder" was banned there due to the A-plot revolving around Daffy thinking Porky wants to kill him (with Porky getting horribly injured as Daffy tries to escape from his house).