Scarleteen

so, there's this young man (about 22/23yo) who i met once, we both were with our parents so we all met together. this is important as my mum knows this guy.

once on instagram, kind of jokingly, i put a note saying "who wants to model for my art " as my art tends to be artistic nudes with references i find around the internet. the young man expressed interest. i asked him if he was sure, as his family is religious and i was afraid he'd feel uncomfortable. and he said he knew what he was getting into, that he thought my drawing could help him get over his body insecurities and he told me he wouldn't model live but rather share photos with me. we discussed more about the drawing, how he liked it, etc etc. and i asked him not to show the drawing around. he said "naturally, don't worry". also i asked him not to show his genitals in the pictures, which he complied with.

now, i've already started sketching it, but i'm scared that he could have manipulated me and will use my drawing as some sort of revenge porn. also i don't think it's illegal for him to send me those pictures, it's roughly the same exposure as a swimsuit pic.
overall, i'm anxious and need some support and maybe help on how to go about this?

Hi Lyle Lanley,

If the photo is just of his upper body, then it'd be hard for anyone to make the argument that he's sending pornographic material. Too, revenge porn tends to refer to someone sharing an explicit, sexual image that was given to them in confidence, so it'd be something that was actually easier for you to do with the photo than him to do with a drawing.

That being said, a useful takeaway from this might be that, going forward, you only have people model for you who are people you have a more established, trusting relationship with, so you feel you have a better sense of why they're offering and how they'll react overall.