TTP found 135 AI nudify apps accessible to U.S. test accounts

A Tech Transparency Project (TTP) investigation published October 19, 2026, found that four U.S. accounts set up for a 13-year-old boy could access 135 distinct AI nudify-capable apps across the Apple App Store and Google Play. Two accounts had parental controls enabled, yet apps still passed the age filters used in the test. TTP’s report describes a four-account test, not a measure of all teenagers’ access.

The four account results

TTP reported different app counts for each account. The account results overlap, so adding them does not produce the study’s total of 135 distinct apps.

TTP set all four U.S. accounts to the same profile: a 13-year-old boy. One account on each store had parental controls enabled. TTP searched 14 related terms and tested up to the first 15 results for each, including sponsored listings within those results. It also tested paid features when the relevant capabilities were not available in free versions.

For the app tests, TTP used AI-generated images of fictional women, not photographs of real people. It counted an app as nudify-capable if it could depict a woman fully or partly naked, or in a bikini or lingerie.

What parental approval meant in the test

The supervised accounts required parental approval for downloads and in-app purchases. TTP said the parent approved apps that the stores rated suitable for a 13-year-old. The result therefore concerns apps whose age ratings let them pass the configured filter; it does not mean every supervised download happened without approval.

TTP said the stores relied on information supplied by developers for age ratings, and that neither company prompted parents to enable parental controls during account setup. Those setup prompts are separate from the approval settings TTP activated for its supervised accounts.

Store removals and purchases after download

In a snapshot dated September 28, 2026, TTP reported that Apple had removed 25 apps and Google had removed six from their stores. TTP said all the removed apps in its test set remained functional on its test phones. Removing an app from a store therefore did not, in those tests, disable an existing installation.

TTP also tested gift-card purchases of subscriptions in apps already downloaded. Neither platform alerted the linked parent account in those tests. Apple told TTP that a purchase should have triggered an approval request and that the unexpected behavior was under investigation. TTP said Google did not answer its question about those purchases.

Apple’s October 16 guideline update

Apple published revised App Review Guidelines on October 16, 2026. The update says apps must proactively prevent and remove nonconsensual intimate imagery, including imagery generated with AI tools, and addresses apps that conceal or misrepresent features during review. Apple’s developer notice describes the published policy; it does not report an outcome for the access paths in TTP’s tests.