COLUMBIA - The state attorney general's office is planning to issue a formal opinion on changes in the state's new sex-offender law.

Since the law took effect July 1, some prosecutors and victims advocates have said it reduces the age when a person can legally consent to sex and lets offenders claim as a defense that their victims tried to pass themselves off as older.

Trey Walker, spokesman for Attorney General Henry McMaster, said the critics are wrong.

Walker said the law does create a consent provision when one partner is 18 or younger and is accused of having consensual sex with someone age 14 to 16. That's a so-called "Romeo clause."

In all other cases, however, "the age of consent in South Carolina is still 16," Walker said.

The law was intended to increase penalties for sex offenders, making someone convicted twice of raping a child 10 years old or younger eligible for the death penalty.

But some provisions in the law have been interpreted to let those accused of having sex with someone younger than 16 to claim as a defense that the victim said or pretended to be older.

Walker said McMaster doesn't favor the provision, but he also thinks it does not apply to adults.

"Initially as we look at it, the mistake of age provision only applies to the Romeo provision that is inserted right next to it," Walker said. "Which means under no circumstances can an adult use a mistake of age defense. I believe that is a misunderstanding by those who are reading that law."

But Upstate prosecutor Trey Gowdy said even a formal opinion from the attorney general has no bearing on judges' decisions.

"I hope they are correct in their opinion," Gowdy said of McMaster's office. "But the opinion that really matters is the opinion of the appellate courts of South Carolina. The Legislature could have made it easier for judges by making it more clear."

At least one lawmaker said he was shocked to learn the provisions had been added to the bill.

On Friday, state Sen. Kevin Bryant, R-Anderson said he would file new legislation when the General Assembly convenes in January to increase the age of consent to 17.

Gowdy said he doesn't agree with lowering the age of consent. "I don't think college sophomores should have sex with eighth-graders," he said.

He said his office handles dozens of cases each year in which teens are charged with having consensual sex. While the state's 16 chief prosecutors disagree about penalties in such cases, Gowdy said, all think it should still be a crime.