Report finds US teens can still access "undressing" apps despite Apple and Google parental controls

A report by the digital advocacy group Tech Transparency Project shows that researchers used four Apple and Google accounts labeled as age 13 to download 135 apps that can remove clothing or swap faces; two of the accounts were under parental controls that only allowed downloading apps appropriate for 13-year-olds, yet they still downloaded 24 and 51 apps respectively. The report says age ratings for such apps are mainly self-declared by developers, that a face-swap app with explicit promotional images was labeled as suitable for ages 4 and up, and that a 13-year-old account purchasing a subscription also did not trigger a notification to the parent account. After TTP contacted them, Apple tightened its content moderation guidelines, requiring developers to proactively block and remove non-consensual intimate imagery, and said it had taken action on the remaining apps in the report; Google said it had removed violating apps and restricted related search terms, but researchers and parents found that already-downloaded apps could still be used and continued to charge fees. The report also describes a Pennsylvania high school student who used the app Movely to turn photos of six girls into sexualized videos and was later charged by local police with harassment.