Apple will give apps with dating features, or with a virtual companion that flirts or talks about sex, an App Store age rating of at least 18+. In a notice to app makers on Nov. 2, Apple said that starting Nov. 16 its age rating questionnaire will ask whether an app includes dating and relationship features. Apple's definition covers features that connect real people for dating or relationships, and virtual companions that draw a user into sexual or romantic content. Apps that include them receive a minimum age rating of 18+. A news report says the change could also reach AI companion apps, where people chat with made-up characters. Apple already rated apps with frequent sexual content 18+. The new question sets 18+ for any dating feature or romantic or sexual companion, however often that content appears.
An age rating is the label on an app's store page, such as 4+, 13+ or 18+, that says the youngest age the app suits. App makers set it themselves by answering Apple's questionnaire about what their app contains, and Apple turns the answers into the rating. Parents' controls rely on that rating. If a parent has set up a child account with an age limit, a child who tries to download an app rated above it is told to ask a parent's permission first. Apple says some settings switch on automatically for accounts under 18, and in some places its content restrictions for apps can't be turned off. The rating does not check anyone's age on its own. It limits downloads on child accounts, where a parent sets an age limit or, in some places, limits are on by default.
App makers must answer the new question when they submit an app update or change their age rating answers, and every app must have answered by Jan. 12, 2027. The same notice adds a second question, on whether an app shares a person's real-world location with others. In Brazil, local rules require the country's own 18-and-over rating, A18, for dating and relationship features, and its 16-and-over rating, A16, for location sharing.
The 18+ minimum applies to companions that engage users in romantic or sexual content, not to every chatbot. Read literally, Apple's wording would not put a companion app that never turns romantic or sexual at 18+. Apple's existing rules already rate sexual or sensual chat in any app, at 13+ when it is infrequent and 18+ when it is frequent. Apple has not said whether a general-purpose chatbot that users steer into romance counts as a companion under the new question. Its rules tell app makers to answer the age questions honestly, but Apple has not said how it will check the new answer.