How AI ‘Nudify’ Apps Work and What Apple, Google Are Doing To Stop Them
AI nudify apps are making it alarmingly easy to create realistic fake nude images from ordinary photos. A CBS News test found 19 such apps across Apple's App Store and Google Play Store. While both companies have removed flagged apps, child safety advocates say stronger proactive checks are needed to prevent misuse.
Artificial intelligence has made it alarmingly simple to turn an ordinary photograph into explicit content, and so called "nudify apps" are at the centre of this growing concern. These tools use AI generated software to digitally strip clothing from photos of real people, converting innocent images into naked or p*rnographic content in a matter of seconds, raising urgent questions about how such apps continue to circulate on major platforms and what tech giants are doing about it.
How the Apps Actually Work
The process behind these apps is troublingly straightforward. CBS News tested this by feeding AI generated images of a fully clothed adult woman and an adult man into 70 different AI photo editing apps found in the Google Play Store and Apple's App Store. Nineteen of the apps altered the photos to create disturbing images and videos containing nudity and explicit s*xual content.
AI 'Nudify' Apps That Digitally Undress Photos Pose Serious Back to School Risk for Teens
For one of the apps tested, the process required nothing more than highlighting the area of the photo to be changed and typing in a simple text prompt, such as a "make nude" instruction. The app generated a startlingly realistic altered image in under 30 seconds, with no advanced technical skill needed on the part of the user.
Access to these apps is also far easier than it should be. While most are rated for adults, some are marketed as suitable for teens, and a handful carry no age restrictions at all, meaning minors can potentially download and use them with little to no barrier.
How Apple Is Responding
CBS News flagged the apps it identified to Apple, and the company has since removed a number of them from its App Store. Apple said it had already "proactively rejected many of these apps and removed many others, including when users have flagged them via our reporting tools."
The company pointed to its existing developer guidelines, which it says "prohibit overtly s*xual or p*rnographic content and require developers to have a method for filtering objectionable user generated content."
How Google Is Responding
Google also acted after being notified by CBS News, removing a number of flagged apps from the Play Store. The company said its policies do "not allow apps that contain s*xual content, and we continually take proactive steps to detect and remove apps with harmful content."
Google added that it takes swift action whenever it receives reports of violations, noting it has already suspended hundreds of apps found to be in breach of its rules. This mirrors a similar cleanup last year, when Meta removed a batch of ads promoting nudify apps after an earlier CBS News investigation uncovered hundreds of such advertisements running on its platforms.
Why Advocates Say It's Not Enough
Despite these takedowns, child safety advocates argue the response remains largely reactive rather than preventive. Michelle DeLaune, president and CEO of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, said app stores need to be far more proactive in vetting what they allow onto their platforms in the first place.
"App stores do have a responsibility for the apps that they are making available to the public. So it's absolutely critical that there are vetting procedures to know what exactly is being marketed and what that tool does in reality," she told CBS News.
The scale of the problem underscores her concern. According to Common Sense Media, roughly half of US teens say they have seen AI generated pornography, and one in four of those says it featured themselves or someone they know. One in five teens admits to having made such content themselves, while one in four has shared it or knows someone who has.
Law Enforcement Sees a Pattern
Detective Javier Rodriguez of the Austin Independent School District Police Department, who trains school resource officers to recognise these threats, said the apps have lowered the barrier for exploitation significantly. "AI's just made it that much easier to perpetrate those types of crimes against our kids," he told CBS News, adding that offenders are often not anonymous strangers but classmates, who can face consequences ranging from a misdemeanor citation to felony charges involving jail time.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 21, 2026 09:21 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).