[Flyndaran]

Also what's on the books legal won't always keep you from conviction. Look at how many places don't have laws against nudity but will still arrest you for some other unrelated crime like disturbing the peace, or co-opted sex offense even if you were just standing on the street not doing anything.
Certain behaviors will be judged as horrible by society making law enforcement shoe-horn anything they can find to punish the deviants. And society at large will often be ok with that.
Sometimes backlash about "well actually" will lead to exoneration but with a stigma, and heated public discussions over making it a real law.

So characters' actions could be technically legal, but cause so much trouble and publicity that it quickly gets made illegal.