League of Legends news » GDPR & Improved Data Security Worldwide

Greetings summoners,

If you live in Europe, you may have heard about GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation). If not, here’s the tldr: The EU recently passed new data privacy laws that will require some changes to how companies like Riot store and manage your data.

 So what do you need to know?

Not much will noticeably change for the majority of players, even within Europe.

On the backend, companies will add new processes and security to better protect your information, and you now have the ability to better control some of the ways companies handle your personal data (like requesting that a company remove personal data it has stored about you).

The changes are targeted to the European Union, but Riot is committed to maintaining player trust worldwide, so we’re taking this opportunity to assess and improve many of the ways we manage player information in all regions.

One of the ways GDPR seeks to better protect personal data is increasing the minimum age of consent to process personal data to 16 years old in many EU member states.  It also allows member states to pass local laws to set the age of consent at a lower age -- which some have done -- as long as it isn’t lower than 13 years old.  To help ensure we’re addressing these changes, we’re verifying that players are of the legal age (for their countries) by asking for parental permission first. More on that below.

 How do I know if I am impacted by the age requirement changes?

If you are not in the EU and/or are over the age of 16, you will not be required to do anything and can play as normal.

If you are under 16 and in the EU, we may seek to get permission from your parent or guardian to play League of Legends. The age required varies from country to country, so check the player support article here to see what the requirements are for your location.

 How will it work?

After May 25th, we’ll need to suspend accounts for players who fall under the legally required age for their region until parental permission is received.

If your account is one of those requiring parental permission, you will receive in-client warnings about a week before the changes go live. You will be directed to a website to unlock your account once that is available. If you are not impacted, you won’t see the notification and don’t need to take any further action.

 Is there a place I can find out more about GDPR?

Yes, please check out the player support article for additional questions and answers.