1. the act or condition or an instance of regulating oneself or itself: such as
2. control or supervision from within instead of by an external authority the online marketing industry's self-regulation of consumer privacy protections also a rule imposed in self-regulation Banks were left to largely manage themselves, and establish industry-wide self-regulations … — Kevin Plummer According to the Federal Trade Commission, food marketing cannot be false, deceptive or unfair. But there are other, more specific, self-regulations out there for ads related to kids. — Alexandra Sifferlin
3. the bringing of oneself or itself into a state of order, method, or uniformity self-regulation of an ecosystem emotional self-regulation