청소년 보호를 위한 온라인 게임규제의 적정성

초록

This study examines the adequacy of regulations regarding the protection of the youth and the minimization of social costs through a historical and legal review of game product classifications, shutdowns, and stochastic item regulations. It intends to suggest a reasonable form of regulation; as such, the discussion based on the current legal regulations and related judgment cases was critically analyzed. First, it was determined that self-regulation is being implemented in some areas through the central government-led regulation in the game classification system. The domestic game product classification system was found to have a risk of double regulation and a complex system due to the mixing of regulatory forms and the unconstitutionality of the regulation’s fairness, arbitrary interpretation of terminology, and freedom of expression. Second, the shutdown regulation system is classified as a government and usage regulation, a preregulation, and social regulation. It can be explained as a producer regulation that regulates users where game product producers are obligated to comply with the rules. However, the subject of actual regulation is the youth. Third and last, the probabilistic item is representative self-regulation managed by the Game Self-Governance Organization of Korea (GSOK). It was found that the scope of ethics and morality that game creators must comply with is important in regulating probabilistic items, including content regulation and post-regulation. In conclusion, the most appropriate consensus is the current situation where the government, industry, and society regarding youth protection and industry promotion, the failure of self-regulation, and the current situation where a third-party organization is implementing self-regulation in a specific area. It may be in the form of allowing the content of self-regulation set by companies to be approved by the government. Through this method, classified as sanctioned self-regulation, the government imposes legally enforceable obligations on industries and enforces self-regulation as a condition for fulfilling them. Government approval must be obtained for the content and operation of the organization in charge. After self-regulation has established itself and gained some social trust, the introduction of the self-regulation conditional compulsory model may be considered. However, for this to happen, it was deemed necessary to establish a trusting relationship between the entities involved in the regulation.

키워드