The Labor Party may subject mobile-phone-based games to classification checks if it is re-elected into office.

A report in the Australian has exposed a loophole that allows thousands of games and applications to go online without going through classification. For example, Apple games available through iTunes do not have ratings from the Federal Government's Classification Board. This is despite a declaration on the board's Web site that all games must be classified.

App distributors are able to avoid classification and paying fees (amounts fall between $470 and $2040) because the Classification (Publications, Films and Computer Games) Act of 1995 does not provide specific guidelines for games available on mobile phones.

About 220,000 applications are available for download in Australia.

The most conservative estimates suggests that one-third of the applications are games. This would mean that compliance costs for the apps would be worth millions.

Home Affairs Minister Brendan O'Connor, through a spokeswoman, confirmed that the issue about the gaming loophole had been raised with state and territory officials. The spokeswoman confirmed that the subject would be put under scrutiny at a classification meeting in November that is expected to host O'Connor and and a number of relevant state ministers.

Gamers are hoping that the meeting would produce a possible decision on the introduction of an R18+ classification for computer games.

O'Connor earlier stated that more work needs to be done before they can arrive at a decision on the rating. The comments were made in spite of a status report that shows that 98 per cent of submissions about the classification debate were favorable to a revised rating.