North America: Privacy

As children's privacy becomes a defining regulatory priority in 2026, organizations face an increasingly complex web of obligations spanning federal frameworks, age-appropriate design codes, and emerging enforcement actions. From Canada's anticipated Children's Privacy Code to the UK's multimillion-dollar fines and the FTC's intensified COPPA enforcement, the landscape demands that any entity collecting minors' data understand how consent thresholds, age assurance mechanisms

New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill signed three measures addressing children's and teens' use of online services, with the New Jersey Age-Appropriate Design Code imposing comprehensive safety, privacy, data use, and design requirements on covered online service providers beginning September 1, 2027.

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As children's privacy becomes a defining regulatory priority in 2026, organizations face an increasingly complex web of obligations spanning federal frameworks, age-appropriate design codes, and emerging enforcement actions. From Canada's anticipated Children's Privacy Code to the UK's multimillion-dollar fines and the FTC's intensified COPPA enforcement, the landscape demands that any entity collecting minors' data understand how consent thresholds, age assurance mechanisms

On June 8, 2026, four central agencies jointly published a revamped Good Clinical Practice (GCP) standard, effective Sept. 1, 2026. It is materially shorter than the standard it replaces, and that compression is the point: China’s GCP now incorporates International Council for Harmonisation (ICH) E6(R3) by reference rather than restating it, and it reallocates responsibility among sponsors, service providers, investigators, and sites in ways that may require contract amendments before the effective date.

On May 15, 2026, a substantial revision of China’s Implementing Regulations of the Drug Administration Law (the Regulations or Implementing Regulations) took effect, introducing, among other items, a formal data protection framework. On the same day, China’s National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) issued the Implementing Measures for Drug Trial Data Protection (the Measures), giving operational effect to the Regulations’ data-protection article for the first time since China accepted the underlying obligation upon World Trade Organization (WTO) accession.