Apple updated its App Review Guidelines today with a series of changes meant to strengthen protections against harmful content and deceptive app review practices. Here are the details.

Over the past year alone, there has been no shortage of reports and controversies involving apps that skirt Apple’s App Review Guidelines and expose users, including minors, to harmful or inappropriate content.

In January, the Tech Transparency Project (TTP) identified dozens of AI-powered “nudify” apps on the App Store.

The group published a follow-up investigation in April, revealing that Apple’s App Store search suggestions and advertisements were also directing users to such apps. In July, San Francisco officials ordered Apple to remove eight apps capable of generating nonconsensual intimate imagery.

Also in July, a 9to5Mac investigation uncovered dozens of apps disguising gambling platforms as simple games and utilities to evade App Store review, many of which were available to children.

These apps behaved as advertised when accessed from outside Brazil, but revealed hidden betting platforms when opened from Brazilian IP addresses.

And then there was the Grok controversy, which saw Elon Musk’s AI chatbot used to generate nonconsensual sexualized images of women and minors, prompting lawmakers and advocacy groups to call on Apple to remove X and Grok from the App Store. Apple later confirmed that it had privately warned xAI that Grok could be removed unless the company addressed the issue.

Today, Apple updated its App Review Guidelines in an attempt to address problems such as these.

Under Section 1.2, which covers user-generated content, the guidelines now read (changes in bold):

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