The PROTECT Act of 2003 and Statutory Rape

[BBT]

Statutory Rape laws differ between the United States and Canada. In the US, I've always been under the impression that sex with someone under 18 is considered statutory rape. In Canada, the age of consent is only 14, which seems extremely low (It's 18 only if the older person holds some position of trust or authority). This of course can lead to the strange consequence that an American and a Canadian having sex on one side of the border is illegal but having sex on the other side of the border is not.

However, I was informed of the PROTECT Act of 2003, including provisions designed to punish "sex tourism" (traveling to foreign countries with lax sex laws to rape underage prostitutes) which according to Wikipedia ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PROTECT_Act_of_2003 ):

Authorizes fines and/or imprisonment for up to 30 years for U.S. citizens or residents who engage in illicit sexual conduct abroad.

For the purposes of this law, illicit sexual conduct includes commercial sex with anyone under 18, and all sex with anyone under 16.

However, Wikipedia doesn't seem like a source you want to trust, so I looked at the actual text of the law and found:

TRAVEL WITH INTENT TO ENGAGE IN ILLICIT
10 SEXUAL CONDUCT.—A person who travels in interstate
11 commerce or travels into the United States, or a United
12 States citizen or an alien admitted for permanent resi
13 dence in the United States who travels in foreign com
14 merce, for the purpose of engaging in any illicit sexual
15 conduct with another person shall be fined under this title
16 or imprisoned not more than 30 years, or both.
17 ‘‘(c) ENGAGING IN ILLICIT SEXUAL CONDUCT IN
18 FOREIGN PLACES.—Any United States citizen or alien ad
19 mitted for permanent residence who travels in foreign
20 commerce, and engages in any illicit sexual conduct with
21 another person shall be fined under this title or imprisoned
22 not more than 30 years, or both.

and

9 ‘‘(f) DEFINITION.—As used in this section, the term
10 ‘illicit sexual conduct’ means (1) a sexual act (as defined
11 in section 2246) with a person under 18 years of age that
12 would be in violation of chapter 109A if the sexual act
13 occurred in the special maritime and territorial jurisdic
14 tion of the United States; or (2) any commercial sex act
15 (as defined in section 1591) with a person under 18 years
16 of age.

Which seems to imply that any sex, commercial or not, with someone under 18 would be a punishable offense. So I looked further, at the referenced section 2246, and found a definition of "sexual act" that basically says any touching of genitals in a sexual manner is a sexual act. But the protect act specifically says sexual acts that would be in violation of chapter 109A, so I looked at that. I found many definitions of sexual crimes, such as rape by force/threatening/drugging/etc. But as for statutory rape, I only found the following two excerpts:

(c) With Children.— Whoever crosses a State line with intent to engage in a sexual act with a person who has not attained the age of 12 years, or in the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States or in a Federal prison, or in any prison, institution, or facility in which persons are held in custody by direction of or pursuant to a contract or agreement with the Attorney General [1] knowingly engages in a sexual act with another person who has not attained the age of 12 years, or knowingly engages in a sexual act under the circumstances described in subsections (a) and (b) with another person who has attained the age of 12 years but has not attained the age of 16 years (and is at least 4 years younger than the person so engaging), or attempts to do so, shall be fined under this title, imprisoned for any term of years or life, or both. If the defendant has previously been convicted of another Federal offense under this subsection, or of a State offense that would have been an offense under either such provision had the offense occurred in a Federal prison, unless the death penalty is imposed, the defendant shall be sentenced to life in prison.

and

(a) Of a Minor.— Whoever, in the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States or in a Federal prison, or in any prison, institution, or facility in which persons are held in custody by direction of or pursuant to a contract or agreement with the Attorney General [1] knowingly engages in a sexual act with another person who—
(1) has attained the age of 12 years but has not attained the age of 16 years; and
(2) is at least four years younger than the person so engaging;
or attempts to do so, shall be fined under this title, imprisoned not more than 15 years, or both.

Which implies that the age of consent is 16, after all.

Am I correct in interpreting this stream of legal technicalities as meaning that the PROTECT Act prohibits the following activities while travelling abroad?

1. All sexual acts of any kind with someone under the age of 16, unless you are less than 4 years older than the younger party
2. Only "aggravated sexual abuse" type sexual acts (i.e. by force, without consent, etc) with someone under the age of 18
3. Nothing at all about sexual acts with someone over the age of 18, even if it were sexual assault

And are there any other US laws that apply to sexual acts outside of US borders? I'm no lawyer so I find it a bit difficult to make any sense of it.

 

[BBT]

anyone know anything about this?