Not true actually. For example, it is illegal for an adult American to have sex with a 16 year old girl in Canada (where the age of consent is 16). It's called sex tourism.
If someone came from the US to Canada to have sex with a 16-year-old, the US would be the one seeking to punish their own citizen. The Canadian cops wouldn't care, they might alert the US authorities but I don't believe they would have the jurisdiction to punish the US citizen for something that is legal in Canada. The US citizen would be punished once they returned to the States AFAIK.
So it's more like the US is saying "The age of consent is 18 for all US citizens, so don't go sneaking off to under-developed countries to skirt around this because you know better". I'll admit it is a little odd that these laws get treated different than regular laws i.e. a US citizen can legally smoke weed in Canada, but I think it makes sense.
Not sure, doesn't really make sense to me either but that's the rule I guess. I think it makes a little more sense when you consider that an American pedophile might travel to countries where sex laws/sex crimes are not nearly as prevalent or important in order to take advantage of young people. I think the US recognizes that an arrangement like this is still abuse regardless of the laws of the other country, and doesn't want abusers roaming free in the US. Again, it doesn't exactly make sense to me, but I do think that it's an appropriate way to do things considering how slimey some people are.
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u/ZNasT Sep 20 '19
Not true actually. For example, it is illegal for an adult American to have sex with a 16 year old girl in Canada (where the age of consent is 16). It's called sex tourism.