AI “nudification” apps allowing users to upload their own photos to generate depictions of rape and sexual assault are freely available to download on Apple’s App store, The Independent can reveal.

The creation of sexually explicit deepfakes has been outlawed in the UK since Elon Musk’s Grok AI tool was used to “digitally strip” victims of their clothes, sparking outrage. Pornography depicting rape and sexual assault has been illegal in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland since 2015.

But The Independent found several apps allowing users to “strip” photos available on Apple’s App Store – including one that allowed users to upload images into scenes including “bedroom rape”. These descriptions were accompanied by graphic videos of the scenarios.

The app, which we have chosen not to name, listed dozens of other AI-generated scenarios for users to upload photos into, as well as allowing users to generate pictures after giving it instructions on creating graphic scenes.

It is free to download but then advertises membership for $10.83 per month. The app also encouraged users to come back for “gifts” by “checking in” every day.

The app has since been removed after it was flagged to Apple. The company declined to comment directly but said its guidelines prohibit overtly sexual or pornographic content.

Other apps offered similar abilities to “strip” people in real images and generate videos of sexualised scenarios using the images.

Apple said a number of the apps flagged had added the features that violate their terms of service after being reviewed.

The revelations come after a Tech Transparency Project investigation earlier this year found 47 AI “nudify” apps available for download in the tech giant’s US app store. Following this, a search byThe Independent showed several similar apps, as well as apps named in the TTP investigation, were also available in the UK versions of the app stores.

Apple App Store policy states apps “should not include content that is offensive, insensitive, upsetting, intended to disgust, in exceptionally poor taste, or just plain creepy”.

It said it forbids “overtly sexual or pornographic material”, defined as “explicit descriptions or displays of sexual organs or activities intended to stimulate erotic rather than aesthetic or emotional feelings”.

Nudification apps came under fire after X’s Grok was used to create non-consensual deepfakes of women earlier this year. It has since become illegal to create or request a non-consensual deepfake image of an adult in the UK.

Labour MP Jess Asato, who had sexualised deepfake images made of her and shared widely online, is now suing xAI for damages.

Ms Asato told The Independent that women and children were being “violated, abused and harmed” online “because app creators allow it to happen”.

“There are plenty of tools with strong safeguards that don’t accept requests for nudification or sexualisation, so where they do, like with Grok, it isn’t an accident it’s a choice and we need accountability,” she continued.

“Nobody should live in fear that their image can be sexualised and shared around the world by an AI tool, which is why I am pursuing legal action to prove responsibility and stop AI abuse.”

Janaya Walker, interim director of the End Violence Against Women Coalition (EVAW), said the “violent and harmful” content seen on the apps can encourage individuals to “role play violent and dehumanising acts against women”, and encourages a “desensitising effect”.

“Tech companies like Apple and Google have duties under the law regarding violent and harmful content, particularly where it is illegal content,” she said. “However we know that a range of actors – from multi-billion dollar companies to smaller-scale creators of these degrading apps, continue to monetise the abuse of women and girls.

“The abuse imagery created on these apps allow and even encourage individuals to role-play violent and dehumanising acts against women. This has a desensitising effect and normalises violence against women and girls. The images created are also directly used to intimidate, threaten and harass women.”

She called on the government and regulator Ofcom to strengthen regulation against platforms that “enable and profit” from abuse against women and girls.

“We need to see greater pressure placed on platforms to prevent these known and foreseeable harms, including through legally binding requirements to implement safety-by-design.”

An Ofcom spokesperson said it was “actively assessing” a range of generative AI porn sites’ and apps’ compliance with the Online Safety Act and “will not hesitate” to act if failings are identified.

“New rules that came into force at the end of July 2025 mean all services that allow sexually explicit material need to have highly effective age-checks in place to prevent children from accessing it,” they continued.

“That said, we have no powers to regulate app stores at present, but have been tasked with assessing the role they play in children encountering harmful content. We will report our findings later this year.”