Age is just a number, even if the number is underage. I think in our society's sexually-drenched media and entertainment girls and boy are growing up a lot faster now since they are exposed to these things a lot sooner.
Children are being made into sex objects...children see these examples and emulate them. My kid watched a couple of teen singer's vids like Britney, etc. and at the age of 6 she dressed up in some new clothes we'd gotten for school and did a little dance where at the end she bent over and smacked her behind suggestively. She was informed that wasn't appropos behavior for her age but I had to explain why because I always hated "because I said so" as a kid.
She isn't allowed to watch adult channels, and I see things like this on Nick sometimes. Little girls are being turned into sex objects as young as possible now to sell products to other little girls who want to be grown ups. All of this has a snowball effect on sexual maturity.I also think hormones in food are a factor. I see alot of girls who are young with large breasts more than I did at that age. One time I saw a cute girl who looked about 15 and I thought in a couple three years she'd be dating material. She turned out to be 11
. I was flabbergasted as she had about a C cup and looked very much like 15 year olds I lusted after when I was 15 myself.
Girls are no longer girls, they are young women who know as much about sex or more than their parents. Most females I have personally know had sex by the age of 14 at the latest and a couple had it at 12 the first time! I didn't get laid until I was 18.
Do I say it's all open season then? No. I think that if a girl (16+) can handle a relationship with a man (18+) and they make no attempt to cover it up and the parents are ok with the man then it makes no difference. I have seen a couple parents who have done just this and both times the man was open with them and met them and didn't try to hide away. In one case they learned to trust him (he was about 24 at the time, she was just 17) and let her go with him on weekends. It can work if maturity is involved, and I think a lot of teen girls can benefit from the stability and experience of an older man, provided he is mature and stable.
The key words here are maturity and consent, which no law can accurately predict the level of maturity of any given person. I still think there should be ages of consent as a kind of blanket protection but they should not be any higher than 16. 16 year olds these days are the same in the ways of sex as 21 year olds 15 years ago.