Tech Probe Finds Teens Could Download 135 Nudify Apps on Apple, Google

A Tech Transparency Project investigation released October 2026 found that researchers using accounts marked as belonging to 13-year-olds could download 135 apps with nudification features on Apple and Google platforms, with many apps inaccurately rated as suitable for minors and accessible even when parental controls were activated. The Guardian reported that students at high schools across the United States have encountered cases involving nonconsensual sexual imagery made with these tools, including an incident in December 2025 at a Pennsylvania high school where a student used an app called Movely to create sexual videos from pictures of six girls.

The research exposes a structural failure: age-appropriate app ratings and parental controls do not prevent a coercing peer from downloading a tool, creating synthetic abuse material and weaponising it in a direct message. A Meta Business Partner with cross-platform detection capability, Guardii identifies coercion, escalation and image-based sexual abuse in the private conversation where the threat is made and the harm is inflicted, flagging hostile contact before it reaches the target and surfacing a child in crisis to the adult or agency equipped to intervene, whether the image is authentic, manipulated or entirely synthetic, because the pattern of exploitation is what matters for protection and the law.