Legal Age of Consent in California: Charges, Penalties, and Registration

The legal age of consent in California is 18, the highest tier in the country. Under Penal Code Section 261.5, any sexual intercourse with someone under 18 who is not your spouse is a crime, whether or not the younger person agreed or initiated it.¹ Penalties run from a misdemeanor with jail time to years in prison, and a change effective January 1, 2026 now pulls certain convictions into California’s sex offender registry for the first time.

How the Age Gap Determines the Charge

California does not have a Romeo and Juliet law. Instead, Section 261.5 uses the gap between the two people to decide how serious the charge is:¹

Three years or less apart: misdemeanor only. An 18-year-old with a 16-year-old falls here.
More than three years apart: a wobbler, meaning prosecutors can file it as a misdemeanor or a felony.
Adult 21 or older with a minor under 16: still a wobbler, but the felony sentencing range is higher.

The gap is measured between the two people, not between the older person and the age of 18. A 20-year-old with a 16-year-old sits in the second tier; a 22-year-old with a 15-year-old sits in the third.

Jail Time and Fines

A misdemeanor conviction under Section 261.5 carries up to one year in county jail and a fine of up to $1,000.² The court can also impose probation with conditions such as counseling or community service. For the close-in-age tier, a misdemeanor is the only option.

For the middle wobbler tier, a felony sentence is 16 months, two years, or three years in county jail.³ When the adult is 21 or older and the minor is under 16, a felony sentence rises to two, three, or four years.¹ Either felony can carry a fine of up to $10,000.⁴

Civil Penalties on Top of Criminal Fines

Section 261.5 also allows separate civil penalties against an adult convicted of the offense, imposed regardless of whether the case was a misdemeanor or felony. The amounts scale with the age difference:¹

Less than two years older: up to $2,000
At least two years older: up to $5,000
At least three years older: up to $10,000
21 or older with a minor under 16: up to $25,000

These are stacked on top of any criminal fine. A conviction at the most serious tier can expose someone to $10,000 in criminal fines plus $25,000 in civil penalties.

Sex Offender Registration After 2026

This is where the law has just changed. Before January 1, 2026, a conviction solely under Section 261.5 generally did not require sex offender registration. For offenses occurring on or after that date, convictions under subdivision (c) or (d) — the wobbler tiers with an age gap of more than three years — now require registration under Penal Code Section 290.⁵ The close-in-age misdemeanor tier under subdivision (b) still does not.

There is a narrow exception. Someone convicted under (c) or (d) does not have to register if they were no more than 10 years older than the minor and this is their only registerable sex offense.⁵ Even then, a court can still order registration at its discretion.

California’s registry runs on a three-tier system under SB 384, with registration periods of 10 years, 20 years, or life depending on the offense.

Marriage and Two Minors

Two situations often confuse people, and the law addresses each explicitly.

Section 261.5 does not apply if the two people are married to each other.¹ California allows minors to marry only with parental consent and a court order, so the exemption is real but narrow.

The statute also does not limit who can be charged. It refers to “a person” having intercourse with “a minor,” not to an adult and a minor. When two teenagers have sex, both technically violate the law. The close-in-age subdivision even contemplates this, applying to a person “not more than three years older or three years younger” than the minor.¹ Prosecutors have wide discretion, and two 17-year-olds are unlikely to both be charged, but the authority is there. A larger gap between minors — say, a 17-year-old and a 13-year-old — is treated far more seriously and can be handled through juvenile court.

Why the Minor’s Agreement Does Not Matter

Under Penal Code Section 261.6, consent means a free and voluntary choice made with knowledge of the nature of the act.⁶ Silence, lack of physical resistance, and a past or current relationship are not consent. A person who is unconscious, asleep, or too impaired to understand what is happening cannot consent, and consent can be withdrawn at any point.

For statutory rape, the definition is nearly beside the point. Even clear, enthusiastic agreement from someone under 18 is legally meaningless. The age cutoff overrides everything else.

When Conduct Crosses Into a More Serious Charge

Section 261.5 is actually one of the less severe sex offenses on the books. Related crimes carry much heavier penalties, and the same facts can support them.

Rape Under Section 261

When intercourse involves force, threats, or intoxication to the point of incapacity, the charge shifts from statutory rape to rape under Penal Code Section 261.⁷ Rape is always a felony, carries significantly longer prison terms, and requires sex offender registration. Nonconsensual intercourse with a minor by force can bring rape charges alongside or in place of Section 261.5.

Lewd Acts With a Child Under 14

Penal Code Section 288 covers any sexual or lewd touching of a child under 14 done with intent to arouse. It is always a felony. The base sentence is three, six, or eight years in state prison. With force or duress, the range rises to five, eight, or ten years.⁸ If the defendant caused bodily harm, the penalty is life in prison with the possibility of parole. Section 288 convictions require sex offender registration.⁵

Sexting and Images

The age-of-consent statute covers physical intercourse, but sharing sexually explicit images of anyone under 18 can trigger California’s child pornography statutes under Penal Code Sections 311 through 311.11, even when the minor took and shared the photo of themselves.⁸ Federal exposure runs from 5 to 30 years depending on the conduct.⁹ Prosecutors rarely charge teens as harshly as adults, but the exposure is real.

How Long Prosecutors Have to File

Under California’s general limitations rules, misdemeanor charges under Section 261.5 must be filed within one year of the offense, and felony charges within three years. That means someone can be charged months or years after the encounter, particularly when parents or law enforcement learn about it later.

Consequences Beyond the Sentence

A conviction under Section 261.5 keeps affecting a person long after any jail time ends. Even a misdemeanor sex offense shows up on background checks and can block employment, housing, and professional licensing. Federal regulations bar anyone convicted of a felony involving sexual assault from working in federally funded childcare programs.¹⁰ Schools, healthcare facilities, and law enforcement agencies routinely disqualify applicants with sex-related convictions.

For anyone now pulled onto the registry by the 2026 changes, the fallout stretches further: residency restrictions, in-person check-ins, and a public listing that employers, landlords, and neighbors can search. The minimum tier still runs a decade.

1
California Legislative Information. California Penal Code 261.5
2
California Legislative Information. California Penal Code 19
3
California Legislative Information. California Penal Code 1170
4
California Legislative Information. California Penal Code 672
5
California Legislative Information. California Penal Code 290
6
California Legislative Information. California Penal Code 261.6
7
California Legislative Information. California Penal Code 261
8
California Legislative Information. California Penal Code 288
9
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 18 U.S. Code 2423 – Transportation of Minors
10
eCFR. 45 CFR 98.43 – Criminal Background Checks