South Carolina Takes a Hard Line on Age-Appropriate Design – Audits, Parental Controls, Employee Personal Liability, and More
The recently enacted South Carolina Age Appropriate Design Code Act (S.C. Code Sec. 39-80-10 et seq.) (the “Act”) has the potential to become one of the country’s most consequential privacy laws. It combines prescriptive privacy-by-design controls with restrictions on facilitating targeted advertising to minors under 18, and requires annual independent compliance audits and reports that are publicly posted, coupled with unusually aggressive penalties, including potential personal liability for officers and employees for “willful and wanton” violations. Unlike some other states’ privacy laws that have given entities time to make technical and policy changes before their effective date, South Carolina took a different route. The Act took effect immediately upon enactment in February 2026, and the first audit reports were required to be submitted to the South Carolina Attorney General by July 1, 2026. (more…)
Children’s Privacy in 2026: From Australia’s Under-16 Social Media Ban to a Shift Beyond Notice-and-Consent in the United States
Recent developments in children’s privacy and online safety regulation reflect a global shift away from notice-and-consent frameworks toward access restrictions, design mandates, categorical advertising prohibitions, and ecosystem-level age-assurance mechanisms. Using Australia’s under-16 social media ban as a case study, this article examines four converging regulatory trends emerging across the United States, Europe, and the United Kingdom. These developments increasingly affect product design, advertising, and data governance decisions for companies operating consumer-facing digital services.
The Legal Battles Taking Shape in the Clash Over Internet Content
A federal law known as Section 230 has provided a powerful legal shield for internet companies for nearly three decades. Designed to “promote the internet,” it protects platforms from civil liability for content posted to their sites by third parties.
Section 230’s Original Intent Offers Touchstone for Online Safety
As Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act nears its 30th year since enactment, debate rages on in Congress and in the public as to whether and how it should be changed or perhaps scrapped altogether.
