Maybe because of who we hang out with? I tend to find myself spending a great deal of time with the under 30 crowd lately.
And the "age gap" that they are worried about is just a few years.
If your information about the man in question being only 22 is correct, and I have no reason to doubt it, this story is a prime example.
He is a "predator" because he is trying to date a (gasp!) teenager, who is a full adult but never mind that.
We don’t even know if the kids knew the man’s age.
But the idea that they could entrap any man over a date with an 18 year old woman, shows how stupid they were.
And now a lot of them are in deep yogurt :-)
I was a university professor when I was 26 years old. You cannot imagine the young temptations you get offered. I never gave in to the temptation, but several of my peers married their former students.
The worst was when I taught a course required for seniors to graduate. They were 22 and I was 26. Too much eye candy for a young male.