Entry 05
Classification and age suitability
How computer games are classified in Australia, where to look up a decision for a specific title, why the consumer advice line is more useful than the rating letter, and what classification does not cover.
Classification answers one question: what content does this game contain, and what guidance does that content warrant. It is a useful starting point and it is frequently mistaken for a broader judgement than it makes. Understanding its boundaries is what allows a parent to use it properly and to know which of their questions it will not answer.
Who decides, and where the decisions are recorded
Computer games distributed in Australia are classified under the National Classification Scheme. The Australian Classification Board makes classification decisions and the national classification database records them. Both are reached through classification.gov.au, which is the primary source for any specific title and the only one this site recommends relying on.
Searching the database by exact title is the step worth taking before a game is installed. It takes under a minute, it returns the decision as recorded rather than as described by a third party, and it is current in a way that any written guide — including this one — cannot be.
Why no classification is stated on this site
Infiniti Hub does not publish a classification, an age figure or a suitability judgement for any title, including Star Stable Online. Classification decisions change, they differ between the Board's database and individual storefronts, and reproducing one here would create an authoritative-looking figure that nobody had checked at the moment of reading. The database is a minute's work and it is correct. This site points to it instead.
Reading a classification properly
A classification has two parts, and most readers use only the first.
The classification itself is the marking. The consumer advice is the short line beneath it naming the content that produced the marking — for instance, references to online interactivity or to in-game purchases. Two titles with the same marking can carry entirely different advice, and it is the advice that describes what a child will actually meet. Reading the marking without the advice discards most of the information.
For online games, the advice relating to online interactivity and to purchases is usually the part a household cares about most, because it points at the two features — other players, and spending — that a parent can do something about.
What a classification does not tell you
- What other players will say. Classification applies to the game's own content. Chat is generated by people in real time and is managed by moderation and reporting tools, not by a classification decision.
- What the game will contain next month. Live service games add content continuously. A decision describes the game as submitted.
- What it will cost. Consumer advice may note that a game contains in-game purchases; it does not quantify them. That is covered in the payment models entry.
- Whether it suits one particular child. A classification is a general marking. The judgement about an individual child belongs to the people who know them.
Storefront ratings sit alongside the Australian decision
A household will often meet a marking before it ever reaches the classification database, because app stores and digital storefronts display their own age ratings next to a listing. These are not necessarily the Australian Classification Board's decision: storefronts use their own systems, some of which are international and some of which are generated by an approved classification tool from a questionnaire the developer completes.
The two can differ, and neither is wrong. A storefront rating is useful because it is right there at the moment of installation; the national classification database is useful because it records the decision that applies in Australia. The practical approach is to read the storefront marking when installing, and to search the database at classification.gov.au when deciding, rather than treating either as the complete picture.
Where a storefront marking and the Australian record differ noticeably for the same title, the difference is usually explained by the consumer advice attached to each. Reading both advice lines takes a minute and resolves most of the apparent contradiction.
Randomised items and suitability
Where a game sells items whose contents are determined by chance, this site will not describe it as suitable for a minor. The reasoning is simple: the cost of obtaining a specific item through such a mechanism is not a published figure, the mechanism has drawn sustained regulatory attention in Australia, and a site funded by advertising is not the right party to be making that call for a household. The classification record and its consumer advice are the place to start, and the decision belongs to the parent.
Common questions
The Australian Classification Board makes classification decisions for computer games under the National Classification Scheme. Decisions are recorded in the national classification database, which is published at classification.gov.au and is searchable by title.
Not every title a household encounters online will have a Board decision recorded against it. Some games are classified through an approved classification tool used by digital storefronts instead. The reliable step is to search the national classification database for the exact title, and to read whatever classification and consumer advice the storefront itself displays.
Consumer advice is the short line that accompanies a classification and names the content that led to it, such as online interactivity or in-game purchases. Two games can carry the same classification for entirely different reasons, so the advice line tells a parent far more about what their child will actually encounter than the letter does.
A classification applies to the content the game itself contains. What another player types in a chat window is not part of that content and cannot be classified in advance. Chat is managed by the operator's moderation and reporting tools and by the controls a household sets, which is why classification and online safety are separate questions.
The eSafety Commissioner is Australia's independent regulator for online safety and accepts reports about serious online abuse, including cyberbullying affecting a child. Reporting routes and guidance are published at esafety.gov.au. Serious threats to a person's safety should go to the police.
What this site states about Star Stable Online
Star Stable Online is an online horse-riding adventure game, available on desktop, mobile and tablet devices, in which a player creates and activates an account to play. That is what the advertising material available to this publisher says, and this site does not go beyond it. Its current classification in Australia, its consumer advice and its present content are matters for the classification database and the operator's own pages.
Visit the Star Stable Online website Paid link to the advertiser. Infiniti Hub earns a commission if an account is created after it is followed; this does not change your price, and no classification or suitability claim is made anywhere on this page in exchange for it.
Related entries
- Online safety and parental controls — the controls that handle what classification cannot.
- Payment models and in-game purchases — what “contains in-game purchases” means in practice.
- Glossary of terms — classification, consumer advice, live service and related terms.