Shutdown law

South Korea passed the Shutdown law (also called the Cinderella law; formally the Youth Protection Revision bill) on May 19, 2011. It went into effect on November 20, 2011. The Shutdown Law forbids children under the age of 16 in South Korea to play online video games from 12:00 A.M. to 6:00 A.M. During the shutdown period, access to online games is to be blocked for all gamers aged under 16. This law also caused problems that underage gamers started to steal KSSN (Korean Social Security Numbers) in order to elude the law. However, consoles and mobile games are not affected. Legal challenges to the law were filed by a group of Korean game manufacturers and by a cultural organization. As of September 2, 2014, the law can be lifted per request of the children's parents.