For the record: I watched the movie and totally get the reference.
Age of consent laws vary widely from country to country, and often there are differences inside a given country too... but, on the whole, I'm rather optimistic about the future. The feeling I get when I read the news is that the world is changing in a progressive, sex-positive way. Even in conservative America things are developing for the better. Let me give you an example: the state of Delaware. I lived there for some time, and I'm familar with the legal framework.
Ages of consent in America are decided by the states, not the federal government, and range from 16 to 18 years old. Delaware is listed as having an age of consent of 18, which would put it in the conservative end of the spectrum. However, reality is quite different. The actual laws are much more punctilious and detailed than one would imagine.
Before the age of 12, you are not allowed to consent to sex. This is reasonable, as children of 11 or less are most likely not even pubescent. When you turn 12 years old, sex becomes legal... as long as your partner is not more than 4 years older than you. At the age of 16, you can have sex with young adults of 30 years old or less. And when you reach 18 you can have sex with any older person regardless of age difference! So, in a nutshell, putting everything together, this is how it works:
01) If you're 11 or less, no sex for you. No sir, no way, no how.
02) When you turn 12, you can have sex... but your partner must be 12 to 16 in age.
03) At 13, you can have sex with anyone aged 12 to 17.
04) At 14, you can have sex with anyone aged 12 to 18.
05) At 15, you can have sex with anyone aged 12 to 19.
06) At 16, huzzah, your sexual horizons expand a whole lot! You can now do the naughty with anyone aged 12 to 30!
07) At 17, your sexual horizons contract a little: you lose the 12-year-olds. You can only have sex with people aged 13 to 30.
08) At 18, you lose the 13-year-olds... but as of now and forever onwards, there is no more upper limit to the age of your sexual partners.
09) At 19, you lose the 14-year-olds.
10) At 20, and for the next ten years, the age of your lovers must be between 16 and whatever the maximum life expectancy for a human being is.
11) At 31, bam, you lose the 16-year-olds and 17-year-olds. But the good news are that you won't need anymore a calculator to determine if you can shag someone or not: from now on and for the rest of your life, your legal sex partners will be those aged between 18 and no upper limit whatsoever.
It's not a bad system. You can tell the lawmakers put a lot of effort in negotiating something that would balance rights with responsibilities, and tried to come up with a text that would be more or less acceptable for everyone. But, really... reading what I just wrote, I cannot but think: was there really a need to complicate things so much!? How much easier this would be if they just set the age of consent at 13, the age of late puberty, and be done with it... sigh...