Four simulated U.S. teen accounts accessed 135 distinct apps that the Tech Transparency Project (TTP) said could create nude or sexualized images, raising questions about age-based access controls on Apple’s and Google’s stores. The group published its findings Oct. 19.
TTP created two accounts for each store, with profiles listing users as boys, age 13. Researchers enabled parental controls on one account per platform and tested the apps with synthetic images of adults. The 135 figure counts unique apps across all four accounts, so it is lower than the sum of the account-level results.
The controlled Apple account reached 24 apps, while the controlled Google Play account reached 51. Without controls, the Apple account reached 61 apps and the Google account 47. TTP said researchers approved downloads through linked parent accounts when an app’s rating made it available to a 13-year-old. Later purchases of paid features with gift cards did not alert those accounts, the group said. Apple told TTP that the purchases should have required approval and that it was investigating.
TTP’s category covered apps that could show a person fully or partly naked, as well as tools that could add a bikini or lingerie. Apple challenged applying the nudification label to some editing apps. TTP did not specify how many of the 135 apps could generate fully nude images.
The group said developer-provided information helps determine age ratings, while some of the features it tested required payment. Google Play’s published rules prohibit apps that claim to undress people and nonconsensual sexual content made with deepfake technology. On Oct. 16, Apple announced changes requiring apps to prevent and remove nonconsensual intimate imagery, including AI-generated images, and clarifying its rule against features hidden during app review.
By Sept. 28, Apple had removed 25 apps identified by TTP and Google had removed six, according to the group. The apps continued to work on its test phones after removal from the stores. The test used simulated accounts and adult images; it did not measure how many teenagers use these apps or whether they create images of minors.
