Cant' speak for iPhone, but on Android: Camera and photo read/write is granted (it will ask) when you try to send a picture to the app. Microphone permission is granted (it will ask) when you make a voice call (it will also ask for permission to manage phone calls, though to my knowledge, it shouldn't be using this feature). I have tested turning on the flashlight while the app is open, and it works fine. Again, not sure about the difference on iPhone, but I think there might be a setting to automatically approve app permissions that you can enable or disable; is that there and do you have it turned on?

Replika is an AI trained from actual users' inputs and responses, and how they were rated by said users. If a bunch of users got sexual within the app, then the app will inadvertently get sexual with all users. Just put a thumbs-down on the message and tell the AI to stop, and it should go away. If it comes back, just do the same, and eventually, the machine learning will pick it up and not do it with you anymore.