{"id":665909,"date":"2026-11-03T19:40:24","date_gmt":"2026-11-03T19:40:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/665909\/"},"modified":"2026-11-03T19:40:24","modified_gmt":"2026-11-03T19:40:24","slug":"apple-restricts-dating-apps-and-ai-companions-to-users-18-and-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/665909\/","title":{"rendered":"Apple restricts dating apps and AI companions to users 18 and up"},"content":{"rendered":"

Apple is adjusting its App Store policies to make it more difficult for minors to use online dating apps or AI companions that engage in \u201csexual or romantic content,\u201d the tech giant shared in an announcement<\/a> to developers on Monday.<\/p>\n

The new rules follow other changes the company has made to better protect minors, which include the rollout of its age assurance technology<\/a> globally and more parental controls and child safety features<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While most major dating services typically restrict their platform to adults, Apple\u2019s new policy will require all apps offering dating or romantic relationship features to carry an 18+ rating. Starting November 16, developers will be required to include new content descriptors to ensure their app\u2019s age ratings reflect its features, the company said.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s perhaps more interesting how this rule could impact AI companion apps, or those where such functionality is one of many features. Often targeted at younger people, Character.AI, Replika, and other AI apps let people create AI companions, including friends, lovers, boyfriends and girlfriends, and other fantasy characters. <\/p>\n

xAI last year also launched<\/a> 3D animated AI companions that allowed users to unlock NSFW capabilities<\/a>. As of last summer, top AI companion apps across the Apple App Store and Google Play had been downloaded 220 million times globally<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In addition to \u201cdating and relationships,\u201d apps will also need to indicate if they are sharing the real-world locations of a user with another person or group as part of their functionality. Any app doing so raises obvious privacy concerns, especially if the user wasn\u2019t aware that their location was being shared.<\/p>\n

The company noted that in Brazil, apps that provide location-sharing features for families can request an official rating from the government\u2019s Ministry of Justice and Public Security (MJSP\/Minist\u00e9rio da Justi\u00e7a e Seguran\u00e7a P\u00fablica), instead of being required to list them with the A16 rating, as the local law requires.<\/p>\n

When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission<\/a>. This doesn\u2019t affect our editorial independence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Apple is adjusting its App Store policies to make it more difficult for minors to use online dating…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":665910,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[345,62870,15120,670,343,344,85,46,33366,125],"class_list":["post-665909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-ai-companion","tag-app-store","tag-apple","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-online-dating","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=665909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665909\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/665910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=665909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=665909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=665909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}