콘텐츠 모더레이션 노동의 구조적 특성과 건강 위험성에 대한 탐색

This study examines the working conditions and labor experiences of Korean content moderators, focusing on their psychological and physical health responses and coping strategies. Drawing on qualitative data from semi-structured interviews with fourteen content moderators employed by domestic and international companies, this study applies Colaizzi‘s phenomenological approach to analyze worker’s lived experiences of content moderation. The findings show that content moderation work is embedded in an outsourced and project-based employment structure characteristic of platform industries. These labor arrangements generate persistent employment insecurity and high work intensity. Moderators are also routinely exposed to harmful materials―including violent, self-harm, sexual, and hate-related content―which contributes to emotional exhaustion, severe psychological stress and trauma-related responses. Despite these risks, organizational mechanisms for protecting workers’ health remain limited, with moderators largely relying on individual coping strategies and informal peer support. This study suggests that the health problems experienced by content moderators should be understood not simply as individual psychological responses but as occupational health risks produced by the structural organization of platform labor.