Seven Questions About Apple's New 18+ Rating Rule for Dating Apps

From November 16, Apple will require every app with dating features to carry an 18+ rating on the App Store. The rule also covers AI companion apps that engage users in “sexual or romantic content.”

Apple doesn’t confirm users’ ages in India, so the rating relies on the birthdate users enter themselves. The rule also groups dating with sexual content and doesn’t define “relationship.”

What is Apple doing?

Apple announced the change to developers on November 2:

Dating declaration: When submitting an update, developers must declare whether their app has “Dating and Relationships” features. These cover “dating or relationship connections between real people and/or a virtual companion that engages a user in sexual or romantic content.”

Minimum rating: Apps that declare these features get “a minimum age rating of 18+.”

Location declaration: Developers must also declare whether their app shares a user’s real-world location with others.

Deadline: All apps must complete both declarations by January 12, 2027.

Local rules: Apple says the changes help age ratings comply “with local regulations.” The only country it names is Brazil, where local rules require an 18+ rating for dating apps.

What changes for dating apps: Tinder already carries an 18+ rating, and so does Shaadi.com on the Indian App Store. The new rule makes the 18+ rating mandatory for any app with dating features, and extends it to AI companions.

Problem 1: Apple doesn’t confirm users’ ages in India

The 18+ rating depends on the age on a user’s Apple account, and in India Apple doesn’t check it.

App Store age ratings “work with parental control features like Screen Time and Ask to Buy,” Apple says. If the age on an Apple account is under 18, Apple switches on “age-appropriate protections.” Once a parent sets content restrictions, “apps with age ratings that exceed the restrictions will not appear on the App Store.”

That age comes from the birthdate entered when the account is set up. In February, Apple began blocking 18+ downloads in Brazil, Australia and Singapore until it confirms that the user is an adult. India wasn’t on that list. A 16-year-old in India who enters a birthdate that makes them 20 can download an 18+ dating app.

Hinge requires users to be at least 18. It checks age with video selfies in the UK and Europe, face photos in Australia and Brazil, and the App Store’s age range in Brazil and Texas. It lists no age check for India.

Problem 2: Payment-based checks verify the payer

If Apple used an account’s payment method to confirm age in India, it would confirm the age of the account holder, who may not be the person using the phone.

Apple processes payments for these apps. When a user buys a Hinge subscription on an iPhone, “Your payment will be processed through the Apple App Store,” using “the payment details linked to your Apple ID,” Hinge says. In the UK, Apple has used the payment method on an account to help confirm adulthood. “A valid credit card can help confirm you’re at least 18,” AppleInsider reported.

A credit card shows the age of its owner. But children often use their parents’ phones and accounts.

“Every child basically knows how to use their parents’ phones and has unlimited access,” a participant said at MediaNama’s Bengaluru roundtable on age verification in May.

“Children don’t necessarily have their own SIM card,” MediaNama founder Nikhil Pahwa added.

Participants said children get around other checks as well. “Any technical measure is capable of circumvention,” one said. At the Delhi roundtable in July, a speaker described a 13-year-old cousin who got past Roblox’s facial recognition with a stock photo. “Young people are smarter than you give them credit for,” the speaker said.

Problem 3: Stronger checks would mean verifying every adult

A check that minors can’t get around would have to cover every user. On a dating app, that would tie a user’s government ID to their dating profile.

“To verify who’s a child, they’ll have to verify everyone who’s using a service. Let’s be very clear. All age verification in India becomes Aadhaar verification,” Pahwa said in Bengaluru.

A robust check “risks developing into a persistent, Aadhaar-linked identity layer for every internet user, not just children,” MediaNama’s issue brief from both roundtables said.

From May 13, 2027, Rule 10 of the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Rules, 2025, requires platforms to obtain verifiable parental consent before processing the data of anyone under 18. To confirm that the person giving consent is an adult, platforms can rely on details they already hold or on a “virtual token” issued by an authorised entity, including through DigiLocker.

Speakers in Delhi described checks that share only a user’s age. A service needs only “just a tick that says, ‘I’m above 25,’” one speaker said of DigiLocker’s zero-knowledge proofs. “Biometric verification happens on device, offline, with no surveillance,” another said of on-device checks.

Problem 4: It groups dating with sexual content

Apple’s descriptor puts dating apps in the same category as AI companions that engage users in sexual content.

It covers both “dating or relationship connections between real people” and “a virtual companion that engages a user in sexual or romantic content,” and gives both the same minimum rating. People use dating apps to find friends, partners and spouses.

There is an argument for keeping minors off apps that connect them with strangers. Under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012, sexual activity with anyone under 18 is an offence, whatever the consent, and adults can use dating apps to reach minors. A rating doesn’t stop that unless someone confirms the user’s age.

Problem 5: Apple doesn’t define “relationship”

Apple hasn’t said whether “relationship connections between real people” includes friendship. Each developer will decide through its own declaration.

Yubo lets users aged 16 and up swipe and message to make friends. It sorts users into age-separated communities and checks age with facial age estimation. If Apple counts apps like Yubo as “relationship connections,” they would move to 18+, and users aged 16 and 17 would lose access.

Young people at the Delhi roundtable said they use such spaces. “When your immediate family and the people around you won’t understand, the internet is where you’ll go,” a student said.

Problem 6: It ignores how India already verifies matchmaking

India regulates online matchmaking through identity checks. Apple’s rule asks dating apps only to declare their features.

In June 2016, the government asked matrimonial websites to “authenticate users’ copies of identity and address proofs” at registration. It also asked them to confirm the “user’s intent to enter into matrimonial alliance” and to keep the profile creator’s IP address for up to a year after the account is deactivated.

In August 2026, Tamil Nadu notified that Matrimony.com can verify users through Aadhaar authentication. Verification is voluntary. Users can offer a driving licence, passport or PAN card instead, and those who refuse can still use the service. Verified profiles get a badge meant to “enhance trust, prevent impersonation, and curb matrimony-related fraud,” the notification says.

These checks target fraud and impersonation. An identity document also shows a user’s date of birth.

Problem 7: Apps that share a user’s location may not get a higher age rating

Apps that share a user’s real-world location with others must declare it, but in some regions the declaration won’t change the app’s age rating.

Apple says the location declaration “may not have an impact” on an app’s minimum age rating in some regions. In Brazil, local rules require a 16+ rating for such apps.

Speakers at the Delhi roundtable argued for protections that switch on by default. “The conversation should move from safety by design to safety by default,” one said. Across both roundtables, participants agreed more on “an age-appropriate design code, default privacy settings, and profit-linked penalties” than on outright bans, the issue brief found.

Seven Questions About Apple's New 18+ Rating Rule for Dating Apps

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