Groomed at 17

[Rev. Rye]

So, I haven't watched the full video, but here are some thoughts from what I've been able to glean about the situation:

• In America, several states have different ages of consent, ranging from 16 to 18 (this is not common knowledge; I'm not sure if this is because such legally grey relationships are really creepy, due to California having such a monopoly on America's media that they don't bother mentioning that other places have different laws, or some combination of the two). While I don't know where Nikki Land and Edward Centeno lived during the controversy, I do know that Nikki is apparently based out of Anaheim, California (thanks to Wikitubia). California is one of those states where the age of consent is 18, so if they fucked while she was 17, it would be illegal.
  
• If he waited until she was 18 before they fucked, whatever grooming he did to her when she was 17 would technically not be considered illegal. Morally reprehensible, most likely, but not illegal. I know this because of Onision, another YouTuber who became notorious for grooming several female fans (plus one who eventually transitioned to male and married him), and, despite allegedly doing some legitimately fucked up shit (up to and including wanting to chain one of them up in his basement) appears to have made a point of  keeping to the letter of the law, which, among many other things, led to a movement to make him legally accountable fizzle out.
  
• I know that there's a general rule of thumb called the "Half your age plus 7 rule." If the younger partner in a relationship is half the older partner's age plus seven years, the relationship is generally considered socially acceptable. Given that Centeno was 23 years old, this would make the lowest acceptable age 18 1/2. Given that Land was 17, I suspect that even if they were in a state where such a relationship was legal and such was generally known as such, this would still be seen as too big an age gap for someone so young.
  
• Given that this relationship lasted for years and that, according to one of her Instagram videos, she has been diagnosed with PTSD by a therapist, I strongly suspect that there's a lot more to what Edward Centeno did to her than just convincing a 17-year-old to fuck him.
  
• Something worth noting, I've heard some people argue that even 18 is too young to be a good age of consent. I'm not going to pretend to know how popular this point of view is or if Land does or does not hold this view.