Various environmental changes such as the development of science and technology, the growth of the content culture, and the occurrence of pandemics. Therefore, our lifestyle is changing. As the way of life changes, new industries emerge and grow. The ...
Various environmental changes such as the development of science and technology, the growth of the content culture, and the occurrence of pandemics. Therefore, our lifestyle is changing. As the way of life changes, new industries emerge and grow. The emergence of new industries is causing positive and negative effects. The government plays a role in protecting the people from unexpected dangers and encouraging the growth of new industries. In other words, the government makes efforts to reconcile social problem solving and growth of new industries. There is a need for policy design that can promote innovation and effectively regulate society.
Therefore, this study was conducted to provide answers to research questions. “What policy measures should the government use to increase acceptance of regulatory policy in a situation where value conflicts arise due to the growth of new industries?”
Based on this research background, this study selected game regulation policy as an analysis case. This study was conducted with the aim of presenting policy alternatives to enhance the acceptance of game regulation policy, focusing on gaming disorder. In order to prevent gaming disorder and gambling problems, which are side effects of games, the game regulation policy prioritized control and regulation, not autonomy and activation. However, the policy environment surrounding the game is changing, such as the recent change in the environment for using games and the development of a culture for using games. Therefore, it is time to design a new game regulation policy. In order to achieve this research purpose, this study used a mixed research methodology that combines quantitative research and qualitative research. The analysis model was completed by applying regulatory measures, behavioral economics, and game regulation policy issues based on the policy characteristics and policy actor identified by reviewing the previous research on policy acceptance.
As for the analysis method, first, the issue of game regulation policy was identified by using big data such as media reports and newspaper articles related to game regulation policy. Second, a perception survey was conducted on game and game regulation policy experts, and as a result, the gaming disorder and factors influencing the game regulation policy were identified. Third, based on the effect of the game and the occurrence of conflict, an analysis of policy scenarios applicable to each situation was conducted. Through this analysis, a policy alternative that can improve the acceptance of the game regulation policy was suggested, and simulation analysis was conducted to verify the expertise of the policy scenario. The main analysis results are as follows.
First, incidents related to gaming disorders and gambling problems have occurred, leading to negative perceptions of games from the past to the present. However, with the growth of the game industry and the development of game culture, the perception of games is changing positively. Therefore, positive and negative perceptions about games are causing social conflict.
Second, as a result of experts perception survey, the effects of games are perceived positively or negatively. However, regardless of the method of recognizing the effect of the game, all oppose the introduction of disease codes for gaming disorders. Furthermore, the difference in perception of the effect of the game also affected the preferred policy measures. The peculiar thing is that the self-regulation implemented in many game developed countries and Korea is not the best policy tool as a result of the perception survey. These results differ from those of many previous studies.
Third, one policy measure cannot increase the policy acceptance of all people. Therefore, it is necessary to mix various policy measures. The policy should be implemented strategically by disclosing game influence information, implementing a policy to expand game use education, and then combining various policy measures according to the situation. In addition, there was a significant difference in perception between the people who use the game and the experts who design the policy. In particular, in the democratic part of the policy process. The cause of this result was the influence of past game regulation policies. The government unilaterally introduced regulation policies, resulting in reduced trust in the government, leading to social conflict.
Based on the analysis results, this study was conducted by applying the contents of regulatory means, behavioral economics, and policy environment that were not covered in the study of policy acceptance. As a result, the effects of mixing policy measures and factors influencing policy acceptance were empirically and concretely confirmed. In addition, an analysis of policy scenarios that were not conducted in the policy acceptance study was conducted. Therefore, the policy research methodology was expanded using a new analysis method. In addition, in order to enhance the acceptance of the game regulation policy, an alternative policy that can be applied to each situation was suggested, and problems with the current game regulation policy were identified. Based on these findings, this study is meaningful. Furthermore, while explaining the limitations of this study, the future research plans and the direction of development of the research were explained. This study is meaningful in that it attempted a study to increase the policy acceptance of game regulatory policies and various new growth industry policies by conducting follow-up studies in the future.