nephew losing mind over roleplaying with (he thinks) a minor???

[AzureCrab]

Hi everyone. I'm really worried and I'm not sure what to do. Today, my nephew came to me and told me he was really worried because a year ago, he accidentally did some erotic roleplay with someone he hinks is underage. He showed me the chat log and she starts by messaging him with a photo (account was deleted, I cant see it). He asks her if she's over 18 and she goes "I'm gonna say yes". They swap some pretty dirty messages and then when he says a day later that he's worried she lied and if she's actually 18, she deleted her account. This was all last August but I'm so fucking worried. He's really socially awkward but things have got better and i think he's ruined his life...I keep waiting for a knock form the police. Is this possible? (England

How old is your nephew?
When he asked her if she was over 18 and she said 'im gonna day yes', why was that not a huge warning klaxon to him?
Were there any photographs exchanged?
I don't know anything about this area I am afraid. But i imagine you haven't got the full story. Why is he mentioning it now when i happened last August?

He's 22...he's quite seriously autistic and takes everything really literally. I'm so, so upset!

Was it just messages or were there pics? ie did he send pics? And was it behind a psuedonym or his own name?
I'm sure someone with more knowledge can reassure you but if he cut it off when he realised she was probably underage then I would have thought there's no crime there.

The best way to manage this is to direct him to support services that help address online safety, both as safeguard about others but also a safeguard for him

If the situation is exactly as he has described then its not likely there would be action against, him, even if a complaint is made there is no evidence he believed she was under 16, he in fact asks if she is 18 which makes me wonder if he knows and understands the law around indecent images of children (ie you have to be over 18 to share nudes/photos even though you can consent to sex at 16)

Unfortunately its extremely common for young men who are on the spectrum to get tied up in something they dont full understand.

What’s to say that the other person was actually a girl? Is it possible they were posing as a girl / using fake photos to get him to share?

Nothing will come of this. A few dirty messages? Think about all of the awful criminals walking the street who get away with much much worse. The police have much bigger fish to fry.

Has he any idea what age she actually is? 17 probably not a big problem, 13-14, and if pictures were exchanged, yeah that could be a problem. If he has any pictures I would tell him to delete them (not necessarily to delete evidence but because just having them would be a crime) but I would keep the chat history of her claiming to be 18. I doubt anything will come of it tbh.

If it's someone online, there's no evidence it's even a woman/girl it could be a catfish. They could be a 50 year old man, he really has no idea.

I wouldn't worry about this. There would never be an investigation into this unless the girl (if it is even a girl, could be a catfish or a bot) complains to the police. And even with that very small likelihood, he had no reason to think she's not over 18. Like I said "she"' could in reality be a 50 year old man.

Don't report this to anyone like a pp suggested, that will just blow this up when it seems like a non event. It could even be a friend trolling him

I would reassure him, teach him about internet safety and tell him not to do anything like this again, and then not think about it, if it was my DS