Jail Bait: Difference between revisions

[[File:31631_slide_340x350_8012.jpg|link=Cracked|rightframe|[http://www.cracked.com/photoplasty_140_17-counterproductive-public-service-announcements 17 Counterproductive Public Service Announcements]]]

In [[Real Life]], it is a [[No Sex Allowed|serious crime]] for a legal adult to have sex with a minor who is below the age of consent, usually 16-19 in North America and 14-16 in Europe, but in fiction is almost always 18, since that's the legal age in the [[We All Live in America|US state]] of [[So CalizationSoCalization|California]], with the notable exceptions of ''[[Law and Order]]'' making it clear the age of consent in New York is 17, and Japan where the federal age of consent is 13,<ref>although almost all localities have local laws making it 16 or 18</ref> although that one does cause some [[Values Dissonance]] when things get exported. The term for a person, or provocative pictures of them, who is under that age but looks either old enough or hot enough for onlookers to forget the difference is "Jail Bait." The "joke" about this was "15 will get you 20", only it isn't a joke -- according to the law, a minor can't give proper consent to sex since a naive and hormonal teenager might not make the most sound decisions and an adult could exploit that, hence the term "statutory rape".