What is sexting in simple terms?

Explicit messaging between adults: texts, photos, videos, or voice messages with sexual content.

Is sexting between adults legal?

Consensual messaging between adults isn't illegal in itself. What's a crime is sharing someone's intimate material without consent and using it to blackmail them.

Can I delete a photo I already sent?

Only partly: "delete for everyone" doesn't erase screenshots or cloud copies. Assume whatever you sent stays with the other person forever.

What should I do if someone threatens to publish my messages?

Don't pay, save the evidence, report the account, and go to the police. Warning the people close to you yourself takes away the blackmailer's leverage.

Is explicit chat with AI safer?

Yes, the character won't forward anything or blackmail you. But chats are stored on a server, so it's best not to send personal details or real photos.

What Is Sexting and What Are the Risks

What sexting is

The word is a mashup of "sex" and "texting." It covers three formats, and each carries a different level of risk.

Text. The safest: it's easy to deny, and it's nearly impossible to identify someone from it.
Photos and videos. The riskiest: a face, a tattoo, a birthmark, a recognizable room, and the picture points to a specific person.
Voice messages. Somewhere in between: people who know you will recognize your voice, but without a picture it's harder to prove anything.

Sexting differs from erotic roleplay (ERP) in that you're talking about yourself rather than making up a story about characters. The difference is covered in more detail in erotic roleplay with AI.

The four-copies rule

The moment you send a message, it exists in at least four places.

On your phone and in your cloud.
On the other person's phone, and possibly in their cloud.
On the messaging app's server.
Anywhere it gets copied: a screenshot, a forward, someone else's laptop.

You can only delete some of them. "Delete for everyone" doesn't erase a screenshot that's already been taken. Disappearing messages don't save you either: someone can film the screen with another phone.