Apple to Place Stricter Age Restrictions on Dating Apps and Some AI Chatbots

Apple will soon begin enforcing stricter age requirements on its App Store, particularly focusing on dating apps and virtual companions. Starting on November 16, Apple will ask app developers to declare whether their apps include any features that facilitate sexual or romantic content between real people or with an AI companion. Apps that do have these features will receive a minimum age rating of 18+. Developers will also be questioned over whether their apps allow real-world location sharing. Those features won’t immediately bring an age restriction to the app, though it will differ by local regulations. For example, in Brazil, where local regulations require an above-16 rating for apps that have the ability to share user locations, apps will most likely require a 16+ official age rating, Apple said. All app developers with apps on the App Store will need to declare these features by January 12, 2027 at the latest, Apple said. Once an app gets an 18+ age rating, that doesn’t necessarily immediately block all under 18s from accessing it. But the age ratings can be used by parents to limit their child’s access via Apple’s parental control features like Ask to Buy and Screen Time. Apple defines the AI chatbot apps that fall under these restrictions as any “virtual companion that engages a user in sexual or romantic content.” There are several AI companion apps built specifically for this purpose, but some of the more popular chatbot providers also allow the chatbots to discuss sexual content with users. Elon Musk’s Grok, for example, has a “spicy” mode with fewer content limitations than its regular mode. OpenAI was also working on an adult mode for its ChatGPT, but the company shared earlier this year that it was delaying the feature to focus on “higher priority” work. AI companions are particularly good at mimicking human speech patterns and understanding what users want out of a conversation. Experts warn that these tendencies make AI chatbots particularly dangerous, for it makes it easier for users to create an emotional dependence on the chatbot. This overreliance, or some say addiction, can become even more risky for vulnerable users, including minors, who are more likely to have a hard time differentiating this virtual roleplaying from reality. The unhealthy attachment can reportedly cause cases of delusions, hallucinations, and disordered thinking, which have been colloquially dubbed “AI psychosis” by the internet. Many such cases have been reported for the last two years, and an alarming portion of them have been severe. Some have even been fatal. In one such example from last year, a cognitively impaired retiree was invited to “meet” Meta’s flirty AI chatbot in a non-existent apartment in New York City. The man died on his way over.