Teens can get “nudify” apps despite Apple and Google’s parental controls, report finds

What happened

A report from the Tech Transparency Project, a digital advocacy group, found that test accounts set up as 13-year-olds could download 135 apps that can strip clothes off people in images or swap faces onto nude bodies. Many were rated as fine for kids, so parental controls didn't stop them. Apple and Google both ban these apps. Google says it suspended violating apps, and Apple says it has "taken action" on the apps in the report.

What's actually going on

These apps use AI image tools. That kind of AI has learned from huge numbers of pictures what faces and bodies usually look like, so it can take one ordinary photo and invent a realistic fake, including a nude one. Because the AI does the work, the user needs no skill.

In December 2025, a Pennsylvania mom, Morgan Dorfman, learned that a classmate had used an app called Movely to make sexual videos from photos of her daughter and five other girls. She told the Guardian she'd thought deepfakes (fake images or videos of real people) were about celebrities. Police later charged the student with harassment.

The report points to age ratings. It says Apple and Google largely rely on app makers to decide what age an app suits. One face-swap app, advertised with a sexual image, was rated for ages four and up. With parental controls on, the Apple test account still downloaded 24 of these apps and the Google one 51. Neither store asked for a parent's sign-off.

Apple says it reviews every app, that some apps in the report are normal photo editors without these features, and that it removes developers who add banned features after approval. Pulling an app from the store didn't remove it from phones that had it. Apple took down 25 and Google six during the research, but downloaded copies kept working. Dorfman says Movely kept working on her phone and kept charging her.

In your life

If you have a teen, I'd treat parental controls as a filter with holes, probably not a lock. And the bigger worry may not be your kid using these apps. It may be someone else using your kid's photos.

Be careful about

Removing an app from the store doesn't stop it on phones that already have it. And once fake images exist, getting them deleted is hard. Dorfman says she still can't tell her daughter the videos are gone. This is also one group's test, and Apple disputes some apps it counted.

Where to get it

There's nothing to buy or download here. One small step: sit with your teen and scroll through the apps on their phone together, looking for photo or video editors you don't recognize. Then talk about what they'd do if a friend's photo, or theirs, got misused.