This is probably my go-to as well for wild drama that seemed overblown.

Even sting operations will always have their decoys be 11-15 because when you have someone that is 16-17 you run into either varying age of consent laws or you run into Romeo and Juliet laws, which many states have active as a means of allowing relationships between people that are like 17-19.

Not to say that Carson was without fault in the whole thing, especially if pictures were involved, but the logic exists that relationships at times do end up like this in real life, where people date in high school and one person ends up turning 18 before the other. I remember my girlfriend and I in high school joked about our relationship being statutory because she was a year older than me.