형사정책적 관점에서의 게임중독에 대한 논의 고찰

Abstract

In recent years, game addiction has become a social issue. There have been many disputes over game addiction since the mid-1990s. But since the ruling Saenuri Party has proposed two related bills(Rep. Shon In-chun's bill and Rep. Shin Yee-jin's bill) last year, the issue, game addiction, is being actively discussed again. According to the bill, “Internet games and other digital media content” game is classified as one of the four major sources of addiction, along with alcohol, drugs and gambling. So, the pros have been chatching up with the cons. By the way, I believe it is important for us to know that the government policy against game addiction can have a negative effect on the criminal justice. For example, the policy of online game shutdown can criminalize many of the youths. If teenagers are playing online games at midnight, it is considered to be a violation of criminal law, the residents registration law, and information communications network act. Besides, we have to think about the possibility of labeling effect happening in our society. In addition to that, there could be an imbalance in punishment between legal game providers and illegal game providers. Therefor, to solve the negative effect on the policy of game addiction, first of all, we need to produce more accurate statistics on game addiction. And the solutions in consideration of code, social norms, markets and the law, four regulatory forces in cyberspace, can be proposed.