Summary
Apple has updated its App Review Guidelines to explicitly require apps to prevent and remove nonconsensual intimate imagery, including images made with AI tools. The changes also clarify penalties for apps that conceal features during review and address distribution of apps containing exploitation-related material.
Apple updated its App Review Guidelines on October 16, 2026, to explicitly cover nonconsensual intimate imagery made with AI tools and to clarify penalties for apps that misrepresent their features during review. The changes extend existing App Store standards on sexually explicit material and app conduct rather than introducing a general ban on AI tools.
What the revised rules say
Under Section 1.2, Apple’s content-moderation requirements now explicitly include nonconsensual intimate imagery, including imagery generated using AI. Apps must proactively prevent and remove this material from their platforms. Apple says developers risk violating the Developer Code of Conduct and being removed from the App Store if they lack adequate safeguards or do not remedy violations after notice.
Apple also says sexually explicit imagery generated from real people without their consent falls under its longstanding prohibition on pornographic material. The updated language makes the relationship between that existing rule and AI-generated “nudification” imagery explicit.
Section 2.5.19 addresses a separate practice: submitting an app for review with one set of features, then changing it after approval. The guideline clarifies that misrepresenting an app during review—including by adding features that were not in the submitted version—is prohibited. Apple says apps found doing this may be removed from the App Store, and their developers may be removed from the Apple Developer Program.
The update also revises Section 5. Apple says apps containing material involving human trafficking or the exploitation of children, including child sexual abuse material, will be removed from the App Store and blocked from alternative distribution.
How the changes affect enforcement
The revised wording addresses two points in the app lifecycle. Content moderation rules now specifically name AI-generated nonconsensual imagery, while the review rule clarifies that compliance is not limited to what an app shows reviewers before approval. In practical terms, developers are expected to maintain safeguards for hosted content and to keep an app’s actual capabilities consistent with what they submit for review.
Apple says it has established processes to review and act on guideline violations. The company reports that in 2025 it prevented more than 150,000 apps with safety issues from reaching customers and terminated more than 193,000 developer accounts for fraud and abuse. Those figures describe broader safety and enforcement activity; Apple did not present them as outcomes under the newly updated rules.