Just be genuine and I think you'll be okay. I mean you never know - some people used to roam around and string people up on trees to hang them, sometimes fairly at random even (so long as they had a certain ethnicity or immigration status or whatever) - but all you can control is yourself so don't focus overmuch on what is beyond that.
Also I believe that the literal, legal definition of pedo (or whatever, "statutory rape" I guess? I'm not searching for that term right now!:-P) excludes people who are 18 dating someone who is 17. It would be different if you were 20 dating a 15-year-old, but in general once you move past high school just don't go back and I think you'd be fine?
Also children (even at 15 years old... and sadly also at 50) are going to play regardless, and that means slinging words around that they don't mean, or necessarily even know what the definitions are. Just don't be a pedo, and then even if they accuse you, there's nothing there to justify it so you should (fingers crossed) be fine?