Over the past 20 years, adolescent sexting has attracted popular media and scientific interest, with research showing the growing participation of adolescents in this practice. Given the frequent portrayal of sexting as comprising several risks for adolescents, parents may feel prompted to adopt a variety of practices to regulate their children’s potential involvement in sexting. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 10 Belgian parents (7 mothers and 3 fathers, 48-60 years) of adolescents (16-18 years), this article contributes to the limited literature on parental representations toward youth sexting, by exploring parents’ perspectives and responses. Interviews with parents were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis. Three central themes were identified: (1) Sexting as surrogate love illustrates how participating parents see sexting as a form of intimacy that doesn’t fully reflect “genuine” intimacy, (2) The role of an adolescent’s parent includes parents’ negotiations about youth sexing, shaped by their understanding of their responsibilities as parents of adolescents and (3) Gender and sexting: an ambivalence explores parents’ ambivalent views on the gendered dynamics of sexting. Themes are discussed in regard to possible generational differences between parents and adolescents, potential gendered aspects of sexting, as well as the developmental needs of adolescents.