The most common age of consent in the U.S., by far, is 16. Only in 11 states is it 18. Most of these are red states, incidentally. And even these states usually have an alternative “minimum age of victim” thanks to various exceptions; just three states say no one under 18 can ever consent: Idaho, Wisconsin, and California.
And yet many people think 18 is the age of consent. Some are very public about this belief, counting down to when girl celebrities will turn 18 (maybe this also counts down till she can legally pose nude, but that’s not how most people interpret it). They think this because they learned about age of consent from shows and movies, which defer to the California law for plots, even when they don’t take place in California. Friends and How I Met are in New York, where the age of consent is 17. I Want You Back is in Georgia, age 16. Always Sunny, according to experts, takes place in Pennsylvania, where the age is also 16.
Let’s give you two more examples, both from Texas. The recent miniseries A Teacher flips the common teacher-student romance trope by portraying the consequences realistically. It serves as an anti-grooming PSA—actual grooming, not “grooming” as a codeword for anything else—complete with warnings before and after each episode, so it is very careful to get the facts right, countering every defense of the central relationship.
FX
but we trust you already know they're not.
Still, the story gives the boy’s 18th birthday some weight, for no good reason. Right after it, Kate Mara’s teacher character confides in a friend about the affair, saying it’s okay because the student’s 18. The friend tells her it’s still wrong. Kate Mara later goes to jail because a teacher sleeping with a high school student is illegal regardless of either’s age. But also, people saying this sex is wrong and people defending it should both agree his 18th birthday has no significance here. The Texas age of consent is 17. You’d think a sexual predator would know that.