Apple spent the weekend doing something it probably should have done a while ago: tightening its developer guidelines to explicitly ban apps that use AI to create offensive content, along with apps that masquerade as innocent utilities to sneak past App Store review and then blossom into nudify apps - or, more subtly, surface those features prominently after approval.

The company updated its rules with unusually blunt language around AI and user-generated content, requiring developers to include enough preventative measures to moderate objectionable material. In a blog post, Apple laid out the new expectations: "Apps that host user-generated content are required to filter objectionable material, give users a way to report offensive content, and let users block abusive accounts. Apps containing hidden or undocumented features are also prohibited on the App Store, including apps that misrepresent their purpose during review and only reveal harmful capabilities - such as 'nudification' - after approval, a tactic commonly known as bait-and-switch."

Translation: if you submit a calculator and it turns into a creep machine, you're out. Apple said it will remove any app that adds features not present in the version submitted for review - a policy that sounds obvious until you remember it needed to be written down.

The iPhone maker also updated its legal section to reinforce that it will bar apps promoting human trafficking and exploitation of children. Because apparently some things still require a bullet point.

To be fair, Apple's review process isn't entirely asleep at the wheel. The company said last year its review blocked over 150,000 apps from reaching users and removed 193,000 developer accounts on account of fraud and abuse. That's a lot of digital housecleaning - though evidently not quite enough to catch everything.

Pressure has been mounting from outside the Cupertino bubble. In July, San Francisco ordered both Apple and Google to clean up and delete nudification apps from their app stores. City Attorney David Chiu accused the companies of profiting from these apps through store fees - a charge that presumably stings more than the average antitrust hearing. And in April, a Tech Transparency Project report indicated that both tech giants' stores hosted multiple nudify apps, some of which were rated as suitable for minors. Because nothing says "family-friendly" like an app that undresses people without consent.

So Apple has now drawn a line: no AI-generated offensive content, no hidden features, no bait-and-switch. It's a bold new world where the App Store might finally be safe for people who just wanted a flashlight app.