was sent stuff about a porn game during a voice call with a few other people, unsure how to handle it

[xsharkyx]

(hi! im pretty new here, i hope this is the right place to post this)

so my friend invited me to join a video call with them and a few other people, which also included their partner. i didnt know these other people very well, besides my friend, but i assumed things would be okay and i wanted to try getting out of my comfort zone a bit anyway, so i joined them. im currently 18, my friend and everyone else was around their early twenties, so i was the youngest there.

things seemed to be going okay at first, but then my friend's partner suddenly asked me if i recognized a specific character from a porn game and showed them to me (i did recognize them, only because i kept seeing jokes about it all the time on the internet), then when i said i did, my friend's partner asked me to describe to me in detail about who the character is and what the game is about in specific detail — assuming they only did that as a joke and a way to embarass me.

i didnt answer, because i felt really uncomfortable talking about it, and tried to move on to something else instead. they then sent me a couple more images from it, including a really explicit one. everyone else seemed to be laughing along and playing it off as a joke, so i didnt say anything about it even though i felt really uncomfortable and had this sinking feeling in my stomach. i left not too long after that happened, but it still bothered me a lot.

my friend asked me if everything went ok in the call, but i havent answered back because im really uncertain about what to say. i know legally they didnt do anything wrong, since im not a minor, but i still felt really unsafe since im still a teenager who isnt in college yet and everyone else in the voice call was significantly older than i am, and the only person i really knew was my friend.

though im also really hesitant about bringing all of this up because im worried im making too big of a deal out of this and just overreacting, and i dont want to potentially start drama over it either. i feel... really stuck right now honestly

i would really appreciate any advice on how to handle this, or just a different perspective overall- sorry this is so long, i had a lot to say lol

[Nicole]

Hi xsharkyx,

I think that if your friend reached out to you asking about how you felt in the call, then I think they might've noticed that you felt uncomfortable and wanted to check in on you. Even if that isn't the intention of the text, I think you should communicate how you feel to your friend so you are not put in that situation again. If you want, we can brainstorm how to respond to your friend together, just incase that eases your concerns about possibly starting drama. Although, I don't think you're overreacting at all and I would hope that your friend would be pretty understanding of how you felt, and maybe even reach out to their partner to make sure this doesn't happen again, if that's what you want or makes you the most comfortable.