Online intimacy, sexting and image consent

Consent applies online

Every principle of in-person consent applies to images, video, voice and text. Consent to receive an image is not consent to keep it. Consent to be recorded is not consent to distribution. Consent given once is not permanent.

Sending an unsolicited explicit image is a sexual act performed on someone without their agreement. It is now a criminal offence in England and Wales under the Online Safety Act 2023, in Scotland, in Ireland, in several Australian states, in Texas, California and other US jurisdictions.

Before sending

• Ask first. "Do you want a picture?" is a complete question and takes two seconds.
• Assume permanence. Screenshots defeat disappearing messages, and no platform prevents a second device photographing a screen.
• Consider what is identifiable: face, tattoos, birthmarks, jewellery, bedding, wall art, window views, and embedded metadata including GPS location. Strip metadata, or send through a platform that does.
• Understand that trust in the person now is not a prediction about them after a breakup.
• Never send images of anyone else, and never forward an image you received.

Age

Sexual images of anyone under 18 are child sexual abuse material in most jurisdictions, including images a young person took of themselves and including where both parties are minors. Never request, keep or forward such an image, and if you receive one, do not forward it — report it. If you are unsure of someone's age, do not proceed.

Image-based sexual abuse

Sharing intimate images without consent — the accurate term, rather than "revenge porn", which wrongly implies provocation and covers only one motive. It is criminal in England and Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and 48 US states plus federal law under the 2022 Violence Against Women Act reauthorisation. Threatening to share is also an offence in a growing number of these.

The English law was strengthened in 2023 so that prosecution no longer requires proving intent to cause distress, which had been the main barrier to conviction.

If it happens to you, it is not your fault for taking or sending the image:

• Screenshot everything as evidence, including URLs, usernames, timestamps and messages.
• Report to the platform. Most have specific non-consensual intimate image processes with fast turnaround.
• Use StopNCII.org — it creates a hash of your image on your own device without uploading it, and participating platforms including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Reddit and OnlyFans block matching uploads. Take It Down does the same for images taken when under 18.
• Report to police; it is a criminal offence in most jurisdictions.
• In the UK, the Revenge Porn Helpline provides free removal support and has a very high success rate.
• Get support. The psychological impact is documented as comparable to that of other forms of sexual violence, and it is not proportionate to the number of people who saw it.

Recording

Never record without explicit, specific, contemporaneous consent. Hidden recording is a criminal offence in most jurisdictions and is unambiguously a sexual offence when the content is sexual.

If recording is agreed, agree in advance: where files are stored, whether they are encrypted, who has access, how long they are kept, and what happens at the end of the relationship. Delete on request, and confirm it. A stored file is an ongoing act of trust, not a completed transaction.

Voyeurism and upskirting — recording someone without consent in a private situation or under their clothing — are specific criminal offences in England and Wales (Voyeurism Act 2019), Scotland, and many other jurisdictions.

Sextortion

A rapidly growing crime, increasingly targeting teenage boys through fake accounts on Instagram, Snapchat and gaming platforms. The pattern: a rapid flirtatious contact, a request for an explicit image, then immediate threats to send it to the victim's contact list unless payment is made.

If it happens:

• Do not pay. Payment leads to further demands in the large majority of cases.
• Do not delete anything — the messages and account details are the evidence.
• Stop responding and block after screenshotting.
• Report to the platform and to police. In the UK, report to police and the Revenge Porn Helpline; in the US, to the FBI's IC3 and NCMEC.
• Tell someone. Shame and isolation are what the crime relies on, and it has been linked to teenage suicides. It is a crime committed against you, not a mistake you made.

Deepfakes and synthetic images

Creating sexual images of a real person without consent, including AI-generated ones, is an offence in England and Wales under the Online Safety Act 2023 and is criminalised in a growing number of US states, in Australia, and in South Korea. The harm is not reduced by the image being synthetic — courts and researchers have consistently found the psychological impact comparable.

Practical security

Device passcode and biometric lock; encrypted storage rather than a default camera roll that syncs to cloud backup; two-factor authentication on every account; separate accounts for dating apps; review what a cloud service is backing up automatically; and think before using a face in an image at all, since a cropped image is far less damaging if it escapes.

Sources

• Online Safety Act 2023 (England and Wales), intimate image offences; Domestic Abuse Act 2021, threats to share.
• Voyeurism (Offences) Act 2019 (England and Wales).
• McGlynn C, Rackley E. "Image-based sexual abuse." Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, 2017.
• Henry N, Powell A. "Sexual violence in the digital age: the scope and limits of criminal law." Social & Legal Studies, 2016.
• Revenge Porn Helpline (UK) annual reports; StopNCII.org and Take It Down operational documentation.
• FBI and NCMEC public safety alerts on financial sextortion of minors, 2022–2024.

Last reviewed: August 2026.