Statutory Rape Laws in the United States: Definitions, Penalties, and Defenses (2026)

They can have wanted it, said yes, initiated it, and even lied about their age — and in most states the offense is complete anyway.

That single feature is why these cases surprise people. There is no argument about whether consent was given, because consent is not an element the prosecution has to disprove. In most states the only real questions are whether the sexual act occurred and how old each person was.

This page covers what the offense actually consists of, how states grade it into tiers, what the penalties look like, which defenses exist and which are myths, how these investigations typically begin, and what happens after a conviction. If you are looking specifically for close-in-age rules, those are covered in depth on our Romeo and Juliet Law guide.

If you have been contacted by police about an allegation, stop reading and call a criminal defense attorney. Nothing here is a substitute for that.

Key takeaways

• Consent is not a defense. The younger person's willingness does not affect liability.
• Most states treat statutory rape as a strict liability offense — the prosecution does not have to prove you knew the person's age.
• The age of consent is 16 in roughly thirty states, 17 in about seven, and 18 in about eleven plus the District of Columbia.
• Penalties are graded by the younger person's age, the age gap, and the specific act — the same conduct can be a misdemeanor or a life-eligible felony depending on those variables.
• Sex offender registration is often the heaviest consequence, and it can outlast any prison sentence by decades.
• Close-in-age exemptions exist in roughly half the states, not thirty. The commonly repeated figure is too high.
• Mistake of age is a defense in a minority of states. Texas does not allow it. California does, within limits.
• Many states have eliminated or extended the statute of limitations for offenses against minors, meaning charges can be filed many years later.

How statutory rape is defined

Every U.S. state criminalizes sexual activity with a person below its age of consent. The name of the offense varies widely — you will find it as statutory rape, unlawful sexual intercourse, sexual assault of a child, carnal knowledge of a juvenile, rape in the third degree, sexual misconduct with a minor, or sexual abuse in one of several degrees.

Whatever it is called, the structure is consistent:

The prosecution must prove:

• A sexual act occurred (defined by statute, and often broader than intercourse)
• The other person was below the age of consent at the time
• In some states, that the age gap exceeded a specified threshold
• In some states, that the defendant was above a minimum age

The prosecution does not have to prove:

• Force, threat, or physical resistance
• That the younger person objected
• That the defendant knew the person's age (in most states)
• That any harm resulted

That last list is the whole difficulty of these cases. In a forcible sexual assault prosecution, consent is the battleground. In a statutory case, there is no battleground — there is a birth certificate.

The legal fiction at the center of it

The doctrine rests on the idea that a person below a certain age lacks the legal capacity to consent, so any agreement they give has no legal effect. Courts describe this as a protective rule rather than a factual claim about any particular teenager.

The rule is deliberately blunt. Its bluntness is the point — the alternative would require juries to assess the maturity of individual minors case by case, which legislatures have consistently declined to do. It is also why close-in-age exemptions had to be added later: the same bluntness that protects a thirteen-year-old from a thirty-year-old also swept in two high school students.

Strict liability: the part that catches people

Most states treat statutory rape as a strict liability offense with respect to age. That means the defendant's state of mind about age is legally irrelevant. The prosecution proves the act and the age; it does not have to prove knowledge, intent, or recklessness regarding age.

Until 1964, this was the rule in all fifty states without exception. The California Supreme Court broke from it in People v. Hernandez, allowing a defendant to present evidence of an honest and reasonable belief that his partner was of age. Some states followed. Many did not, and strict liability remains the majority rule in the United States.

What this means in practice:

• A fake ID does not help you in a strict liability state.
• Being told "I'm eighteen" does not help you in a strict liability state.
• Meeting on a platform with an 18+ age gate does not help you. Prosecutors treat platform age gates as no verification at all.
• Looking older is not a defense anywhere.

Two states illustrate the split cleanly. Texas does not permit a mistake-of-age defense to sexual assault of a child. California does, under Hernandez, if the belief was both honest and objectively reasonable — but "she told me" is rarely enough on its own, because courts examine everything the defendant knew, including where the two met, who the person's friends were, whether they were in high school, and what was said in messages.

A handful of states have written the defense into statute rather than case law, sometimes with conditions attached. Delaware, for example, has historically limited it to circumstances where the younger person was under 16 and the age gap was no more than four years. Illinois and New Mexico both enacted mistake-of-age statutes and later repealed them.

Check your own state's rule before assuming anything. This is one of the areas where general internet advice is most often wrong.

How states grade the offense

No state has a single statutory rape crime. Every state has a graded scheme, and where a case lands in that scheme determines whether someone is looking at probation or at decades in prison.

Four variables drive the grading:

1. The younger person's age

The most important variable. Statutes typically create bands — under 12 or 13, 13 to 15, and 16 to 17 are common — with penalties escalating sharply as the age drops. Offenses involving children below the youngest band are usually charged under entirely different statutes carrying the state's most severe penalties, sometimes including life imprisonment.

2. The age difference

Many states make the gap an element rather than just a sentencing factor. North Carolina, for instance, distinguishes between an actor who is four to six years older and one who is more than six years older, and those two categories carry very different felony classifications.

3. The defendant's absolute age

Some statutes key liability to a threshold age rather than a gap. Florida's § 794.05 targets a person 24 or older with a sixteen- or seventeen-year-old. Nebraska's scheme turns on the actor being 19 or older. California escalates penalties where the older person is 21 or over and the younger is under 16.

4. The specific act alleged

States define separate offenses for intercourse, oral or anal contact, digital penetration, sexual contact without penetration, and indecent exposure or lewd conduct. They carry different grades. A single incident frequently produces multiple counts.

Penalties: what is actually at stake

Penalties vary too widely across fifty states for any national figure to be meaningful. What is consistent is the shape of the exposure.

Custodial sentences. At the low end, a close-in-age misdemeanor may carry up to a year in county jail or no custody at all. In the middle range, felony convictions commonly carry two to twenty years. Texas classifies sexual assault of a child as a second-degree felony carrying up to twenty years. At the high end, offenses involving young children carry decades or life, often with mandatory minimums that remove judicial discretion entirely.

Fines and civil penalties. Criminal fines are usually the smallest part of the picture. California is notable for adding a separate civil penalty structure under § 261.5, scaling with the age gap and reaching $25,000 where an adult over 21 was involved with a person under 16, recoverable in an action brought by the district attorney.

Probation and supervision. Sex offense probation terms are far more restrictive than ordinary probation — typically including polygraph testing, treatment programs, internet and device monitoring, restrictions on contact with minors, and residency approval requirements. Violations return people to custody.

Registration. Discussed in its own section below, and for many defendants the consequence that matters most.

Collateral consequences. Loss of professional licensing, immigration consequences including deportability and permanent inadmissibility for non-citizens, loss of firearm rights, exclusion from certain housing and employment, and effects on custody and family court proceedings.

The multiplier effect. Prosecutors often charge each incident separately. A relationship spanning several months can generate a dozen counts, and the aggregate exposure is what drives most plea negotiations — not the strength of the evidence on any single count.

Defenses to a statutory rape charge

Strict liability narrows the field considerably. These are the defenses that actually exist, roughly in order of how often they matter.

Close-in-age exemption

The most significant defense where it is available. A close-in-age exemption — informally, a Romeo and Juliet law — reduces or eliminates liability when the two people are near each other in age, the conduct was consensual in fact, the younger person is above a statutory floor, and no aggravating factors are present.

A note on a widely repeated statistic. Many legal sites, including earlier versions of this page, state that close-in-age exemptions are available in around thirty states. That figure is too high. The commonly cited baseline is that roughly half the states — around twenty-five — have a close-in-age exemption, and several of those are narrow enough to offer limited practical protection. California, Arizona, and Wisconsin are among the states with no true exemption.

The exemption also takes different structural forms with very different consequences: a complete exclusion from the offense, an affirmative defense raised at trial, a reduction from felony to misdemeanor, or post-conviction relief from registration. Our full Romeo and Juliet Law guide covers the mechanics, the four qualifying conditions, and the state-by-state picture.

Reasonable mistake of age

Available in a minority of states, and never a certainty even there. Where it exists, the defendant typically bears the burden of showing the belief was both honest and objectively reasonable. Courts look at the totality of what was known: how the two met, what the younger person said and to whom, whether they were in school, what messages show, and whether anything should have prompted further inquiry.

In strict liability states, this defense does not exist at all. Texas is a leading example.

Factual disputes about age

Occasionally the younger person's age at the time of the alleged conduct is genuinely in dispute — records conflict, or the timeline of the relationship crosses a birthday. Because age is an element, a successful challenge here defeats the charge outright.

Factual disputes about whether the act occurred

Statutory cases frequently rest on a single account with no physical evidence. Credibility, motive to fabricate, inconsistencies between accounts given at different times, and the circumstances of the initial disclosure are all legitimate areas of challenge.

Marriage

Historically an absolute defense in most states. It has narrowed substantially. Many states have raised minimum marriage ages or eliminated child marriage entirely in the past decade, and where a spousal exception survives it is often conditioned. A marriage valid in one state does not necessarily resolve criminal exposure elsewhere. Do not assume this defense exists without checking.

Constitutional and procedural challenges

Not defenses to the offense itself, but frequently decisive: unlawful search of a phone or home, statements obtained without proper warnings, defects in the charging instrument, chain of custody problems with digital evidence, or expiration of the limitations period.

Defenses that do not work

• "They consented." Not a defense in any state.
• "They initiated it." Not a defense.
• "They lied about their age." Only in mistake-of-age states, and even there rarely sufficient alone.
• "We were in love" or "we're still together." Not a legal defense. The younger person's ongoing support does not bind the prosecution, which controls charging decisions.
• "They don't want to press charges." A common and costly misunderstanding. The complaining witness does not decide whether a case proceeds. Prosecutors regularly continue cases over a witness's objection, and in some jurisdictions can compel testimony.

How these cases actually begin

Understanding how investigations start explains why so many defendants are caught off guard.

Third-party reports are the most common trigger. Neither person in the relationship typically initiates the case. It starts with a school counselor, a parent of a friend, a sibling, a coach, a medical provider, or a phone found by someone else. Mandated reporter statutes require many of these people to report on reasonable suspicion, without investigating first and often without discretion.

Digital evidence usually exists before anyone is questioned. Messages, location data, and images are frequently already in investigators' hands by the time a suspect is contacted. The phone in the younger person's possession is generally the first thing examined.

The first contact is often an invitation, not an arrest. Investigators commonly call and ask someone to come in and give their side. This is an interview, not a conversation, and it is recorded. Statements given at this stage produce a large share of the convictions in these cases — often because the person, believing the relationship was consensual and therefore fine, confirms every element of the offense.

A forensic interview of the younger person is standard. Conducted by trained specialists at a child advocacy center and recorded. It is generally the strongest single piece of evidence in the case.

What to do: decline to answer questions, say clearly that you want a lawyer, and stop talking. Do not contact the other person or their family — it reads as witness tampering regardless of intent, and is often a separate charge. Do not delete messages or images; deletion is evidence destruction, the data is usually recoverable anyway, and the act of deleting becomes an argument the prosecution makes to the jury.

Statutes of limitations

The deadline for filing charges has changed dramatically over the past decade, and older information is unreliable.

The trend is strongly toward elimination. More than a dozen states have removed the criminal limitations period entirely for serious sexual offenses against minors. Iowa became the fourteenth to do so in 2021, and the number has grown since. Where limitations periods survive, they are frequently long and often do not begin running until the younger person turns 18.

Discovery and DNA rules extend deadlines further. Many states toll the period until the offense is reported or discovered, or remove it entirely where DNA evidence identifies a suspect.

Civil deadlines have expanded even more. As of late 2025, roughly thirty states and three territories had revived expired civil claims or opened lookback windows allowing previously time-barred suits. California eliminated the civil limitations period for childhood sexual assault occurring after January 1, 2024. Maryland eliminated it in 2023. Delaware and Louisiana have eliminated it as well, with Louisiana's revival window extended through June 2027 and upheld by its Supreme Court.

What this means practically. An allegation about conduct from ten or twenty years ago may still be chargeable, and may still support a civil suit, in a growing number of states. If you are researching a historical matter, do not rely on a limitations chart published before 2024.

Civil liability

Criminal charges are not the only exposure.

Suits by the younger person or their family. Civil claims for sexual battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and related torts proceed on a lower standard of proof than criminal cases, and can succeed even where a criminal case failed or was never brought.

Statutory civil penalties. California's § 261.5 structure is the clearest example, with penalties scaling from $2,000 to $25,000 depending on the age gap and the ages involved.

Third-party institutional liability. Where a school, church, sports organization, or employer had supervisory responsibility, negligence claims against the institution are common and are the main driver of the lookback-window legislation described above.

Juvenile court and cases where both parties are minors

In states with an age of consent of 17 or 18, two seventeen-year-olds have both technically committed an offense. This happens more often than people expect, and it is handled in several different ways.

• Most such cases are not charged. Prosecutorial discretion absorbs the majority of them.
• Where they are charged, juvenile court usually handles them. Juvenile proceedings use adjudication rather than conviction, generally emphasize rehabilitation, and give judges wide latitude in disposition. Records are typically confidential and may be sealable.
• Transfer to adult court is possible. Every state has a mechanism for trying certain juveniles as adults. Thresholds vary by age and offense severity.
• Registration can still attach. This is the outcome that surprises families most. Some states require registration for juvenile adjudications involving sexual offenses, sometimes for extended periods. Eligibility for relief varies enormously.
• Both parties are rarely charged equally. Where charges are filed against only one of two similarly situated minors, that decision is worth scrutinizing with counsel.

Sex offender registration

For many people convicted of a statutory offense, registration is the consequence that reshapes their life — not the sentence.

Depending on the state, offense, and tier assignment, registration can mean:

• Public listing with photograph, address, and offense description, searchable by anyone
• Residency restrictions that exclude most housing in populated areas
• Employment restrictions, plus practical exclusion from any role involving a background check
• Loss of eligibility for professional licenses across teaching, healthcare, law, and skilled trades
• Restrictions on campus presence, affecting college enrollment and housing
• International travel restrictions and passport endorsement requirements
• Recurring in-person reporting obligations, with failure to report frequently a separate felony
• Duration measured in decades, with lifetime registration common for felony convictions

Three questions worth asking a lawyer early: whether the specific offense charged triggers registration at all, whether a plea to a different offense would avoid it, and whether your state has any petition, tier-reduction, or affirmative-finding mechanism that could remove it later.

Some states offer relief routes. Florida allows a post-conviction petition for removal under narrow close-in-age criteria. Texas allows a court to make an affirmative finding avoiding registration where the age gap was no more than four years and the younger person was at least 15. Others have petition processes with lengthy waiting periods. None of these is automatic.

Related offenses charged alongside statutory rape

A statutory allegation rarely arrives alone. These commonly accompany it, and several carry heavier penalties than the underlying charge.

Offenses involving sexual images. The most serious add-on, and the most misunderstood. Federal law criminalizes the production, distribution, receipt, and possession of sexually explicit visual depictions of anyone under 18, and the Department of Justice is explicit that a state's age of consent is irrelevant to that analysis. A relationship lawful under state law can produce federal felony exposure the moment a photograph exists. Mandatory minimums apply. Consent is not a defense. Neither is the fact that both people were minors.

Online solicitation and enticement. Statutes criminalizing communications with a minor for sexual purposes. Because these reach the communication rather than the act, they can be charged where no physical contact ever occurred, and they often carry their own registration consequences.

Position-of-authority offenses. In many states, sexual contact between school personnel and a student at that school is criminal regardless of the student's age and regardless of any age gap — reaching teachers, aides, substitutes, coaches, athletic staff, and in some states volunteers and resource officers. A student who is 18 does not remove the prohibition. Similar rules cover clergy, therapists, correctional staff, and guardians.

Contributing to the delinquency of a minor. A lesser charge often used in plea negotiations, sometimes without registration consequences — which is precisely why it appears in resolutions.

Interstate travel offenses. Federal statutes reach travel across state lines for the purpose of engaging in sexual activity with a minor, and can apply even where the conduct would have been lawful in the destination state.

Furnishing alcohol or drugs to a minor. Frequently charged alongside, and can itself become an aggravating factor that defeats a close-in-age exemption by undermining the consent element.

Common myths

• "If they consented, it isn't a crime." Consent is not an element and not a defense. This is the definitional feature of the offense.
• "If they lied about their age, I'm protected." Only in the minority of states recognizing mistake of age, and even there the belief must be objectively reasonable.
• "If the family doesn't want to press charges, it goes away." Prosecutors decide, not families. Cases proceed over objection routinely.
• "We're both teenagers, so it's fine." True in many states, false in others. In states with an age of consent of 18 and no exemption, two seventeen-year-olds have both committed an offense.
• "There's a national age of consent." There is not. It is set by each state.
• "If nothing happened for years, it's too late to charge." Increasingly false. More than a dozen states have eliminated the criminal limitations period for offenses against minors.
• "If the state relationship is legal, the photos are legal too." Emphatically false, and the most expensive misconception on this list.
• "A conviction means a few years and then it's over." Registration commonly outlasts the sentence by decades.

If you are the person who was harmed

Much of this page is written for people facing allegations, because that is what most searchers are looking for. If you are on the other side of this, a few things are worth saying directly.

Nothing about a close-in-age rule protects someone who pressured, manipulated, threatened, or exploited a position of trust. Every exemption in the country is conditioned on genuine agreement. If the relationship involved coercion, or an adult who had authority over you, the exemption does not apply no matter what the ages were.

You did not consent by not resisting. And you did not lose the ability to report by having stayed in the relationship, by having said yes at some point, or by having waited.

Time limits have expanded significantly. Many states have removed criminal deadlines for offenses against minors, and a majority have opened or extended civil windows. A case you were told was too old may not be.

Confidential support is available before you decide anything. RAINN's National Sexual Assault Hotline is free and available 24/7 at 800-656-4673. Talking to them commits you to nothing. You can also review our victim support resources.

Statutory rape laws by state

Each state page below covers the age of consent, the offense structure and tiers, close-in-age provisions, penalties, registration consequences, and statute citations.

• Alabama (age 16)
• Alaska (age 16)
• Arizona (age 18)
• Arkansas (age 16)
• California (age 18)
• Colorado (age 17)
• Connecticut (age 16)
• Delaware (age 18)
• Florida (age 18)
• Georgia (age 16)
• Hawaii (age 16)
• Idaho (age 18)
• Illinois (age 17)
• Indiana (age 16)
• Iowa (age 16)
• Kansas (age 16)
• Kentucky (age 16)
• Louisiana (age 17)
• Maine (age 16)
• Maryland (age 16)
• Massachusetts (age 16)
• Michigan (age 16)
• Minnesota (age 16)
• Mississippi (age 16)
• Missouri (age 17)
• Montana (age 16)
• Nebraska (age 16)
• Nevada (age 16)
• New Hampshire (age 16)
• New Jersey (age 16)
• New Mexico (age 17)
• New York (age 17)
• North Carolina (age 16)
• North Dakota (age 18)
• Ohio (age 16)
• Oklahoma (age 16)
• Oregon (age 18)
• Pennsylvania (age 16)
• Rhode Island (age 16)
• South Carolina (age 16)
• South Dakota (age 16)
• Tennessee (age 18)
• Texas (age 17)
• Utah (age 18)
• Vermont (age 16)
• Virginia (age 18)
• Washington (age 16)
• West Virginia (age 16)
• Wisconsin (age 18)
• Wyoming (age 17)

Frequently asked questions

What is statutory rape in simple terms? Sexual activity with someone below the legal age of consent. It is a crime regardless of whether the younger person agreed, because the law treats them as unable to give legally valid consent.

Is consent ever a defense? No. In every U.S. state, the younger person's agreement does not defeat a statutory charge. This is what separates statutory offenses from forcible sexual assault, where consent is the central issue.

What if they lied about their age? It depends entirely on the state. A minority recognize a reasonable mistake of age defense; most treat the offense as strict liability, where your belief is legally irrelevant. Texas does not allow the defense. California does, but requires the belief to be both honest and objectively reasonable, and courts examine everything you knew.

Does a fake ID help? Not in a strict liability state. Even in mistake-of-age states, an ID is one piece of evidence among many, and courts will ask what else should have put you on notice.

Is statutory rape a felony? Usually, but not always. Grading depends on the younger person's age, the age gap, the specific act, and sometimes the defendant's absolute age. Some close-in-age situations are misdemeanors — California charges intercourse within a three-year gap as a misdemeanor under § 261.5(b).

What is the age of consent in the United States? There is no national figure. It is 16 in roughly thirty states, 17 in about seven, and 18 in about eleven plus the District of Columbia.

Can two minors both be charged? Yes, in principle. Where the age of consent is 18 and both partners are 17, both have technically committed an offense. Most such cases go uncharged or are handled in juvenile court, but the exposure is real.

Can I be charged if the other person's family doesn't want to press charges? Yes. Charging decisions belong to the prosecutor, not the complaining witness or their family. Cases regularly proceed over a family's objection.

Do close-in-age exemptions apply in every state? No. Roughly half the states have one, and several of those are narrow. California, Arizona, and Wisconsin are among the states without a true exemption. Our Romeo and Juliet Law guide covers this in detail.

Will I have to register as a sex offender? It depends on the state and the specific offense of conviction. Some offenses trigger mandatory registration; some, like a California § 261.5 misdemeanor, typically do not. This is one of the first questions to raise with a defense attorney, because it often drives plea strategy more than sentence length does.

How long does registration last? Anywhere from a set number of years to life, depending on the state's tier system and the offense. Lifetime registration is common for felony convictions.

Can registration ever be removed? Sometimes. Florida allows a post-conviction petition under narrow close-in-age criteria. Texas permits an affirmative finding that avoids registration in qualifying cases. Other states have petition processes with waiting periods. None is automatic, and the underlying conviction usually remains.

Is there a time limit on charging statutory rape? Increasingly, no. More than a dozen states have eliminated the criminal limitations period for serious sexual offenses against minors, and where limits remain they are often long and frequently do not begin until the younger person turns 18. Charts published before 2024 are unreliable.

Can I be sued as well as prosecuted? Yes, and civil suits use a lower standard of proof. They can succeed even where criminal charges failed or were never filed. California also provides statutory civil penalties of up to $25,000 in certain circumstances.

Does it matter if we're in a long-term relationship? Not to the elements of the offense. It may matter to how a prosecutor exercises discretion and to sentencing, but it does not create a legal defense.

Does it matter who initiated? No. Statutory offenses do not turn on who pursued whom.

What about marriage? Some states retain a spousal exception, but these have narrowed considerably as states have raised minimum marriage ages. Never assume one applies without checking the current statute.

Is sexting covered by the same law? No, and this is the most dangerous gap. Sexual images of anyone under 18 fall under separate state and federal statutes that do not incorporate the age of consent. The Department of Justice is explicit that a state's age of consent is irrelevant to federal image law, and mandatory minimums apply.

Can teenagers be charged over images they sent each other? Yes. Federal law sets no minimum age for the person charged. Most cases involving two minors go to juvenile court, and some states have teen sexting statutes reducing the offense, but the exposure is genuine and increases sharply once either party turns 18.

What if we were in different states? Each state's law applies to conduct within it, and interstate travel or communications can bring federal statutes into play. Federal law contains no close-in-age exemption of the type states use.

Does it apply to same-sex relationships? Yes, and it applies equally. Provisions that historically treated same-sex conduct differently have been struck down or repealed following Lawrence v. Texas. Older sources describing unequal treatment are out of date.

What if I'm a teacher, coach, or supervisor? Position-of-authority statutes operate independently of the age of consent. In many states, sexual contact between school personnel and a student at that school is a crime regardless of the student's age — including where the student is 18 — and regardless of any age gap.

Do I have to talk to police if they call me? No. You are not required to answer questions. Say clearly that you want a lawyer, and then stop talking. Statements given in these interviews produce a substantial share of convictions in statutory cases.

Should I delete messages or photos? No. Deletion is evidence destruction, data is generally recoverable, and the act of deleting becomes an argument the prosecution makes at trial.

What if I can't afford a lawyer? If charges have been filed and you qualify financially, you may be entitled to a public defender. Before charges, contact your state bar's lawyer referral service — many offer reduced-cost initial consultations — or your local legal aid organization.

What should I look for in an attorney? Someone who handles sex offenses specifically rather than general criminal defense. Registration rules, forensic interview procedure, and digital evidence handling are all specialized, and experience with them changes outcomes.

Where do I find my state's actual statute? Search your state's name plus "legislature" and use the .gov site. Search by offense name — statutory rape, sexual assault of a child, unlawful sexual intercourse, carnal knowledge, sexual misconduct with a minor — and read the full section including subsections headed "Defenses," "Exceptions," or "Applicability." Then check the registration statute separately, since it usually sits in a different chapter.

Why the details matter more than the label

Statutory rape is one of the few areas of criminal law where the same facts produce wildly different outcomes depending on which side of a state line they occurred on, how many months separate two birthdays, and whether a photograph exists.

A nineteen-year-old and a seventeen-year-old are doing nothing unlawful in most of the country. In a handful of states they are committing a felony. If they exchanged a photograph, they may have federal exposure in every state simultaneously. None of that is intuitive, and none of it is visible from the outside.

That is the argument for specificity. Find out what your state actually says rather than what you assume it says. Understand that images are governed by an entirely separate and far harsher body of law. And if anything real depends on the answer, get advice from a licensed attorney in your jurisdiction before you give a statement, send a message, or make a decision you cannot reverse.

Sources and how this page was compiled

This page draws on state criminal codes and official materials, including California Penal Code § 261.5 and People v. Hernandez (1964); Texas Penal Code §§ 21.11 and 22.011 and Code of Criminal Procedure §§ 42.017 and 62.301; Florida Statutes §§ 794.05 and 943.04354; the Connecticut Office of Legislative Research's survey of mistake-of-age rules; the FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin on limitations periods in sexual assault cases; and the U.S. Department of Justice's published guidance on federal law concerning sexual images of minors. State-level summaries were cross-referenced against published legal research databases and are marked throughout as requiring independent verification.

Review and updates. This page is reviewed on a scheduled basis and updated when statutes change. Last full review: August 2026.

Legal disclaimer. This page provides general legal information for educational purposes. It is not legal advice, it does not create an attorney–client relationship, and it is not a substitute for consultation with a licensed attorney in your jurisdiction. State statutes change frequently, courts reinterpret them, and outcomes depend on the specific facts of each case. If you are facing a legal issue, contact a licensed attorney in your state.

If you or someone you know has been harmed. RAINN's National Sexual Assault Hotline is free, confidential, and available 24/7 at 800-656-4673.