I feel age of consent is more of a social construct which doesn't make it any less value if its there to strengthen a society and that includes making children safe, confident and happy. I don't know if criminalising young adults, breaking up families because of blanket laws and telling a happy child that they should feel bad and dirty is necessarily achieving that. If two people through circumstances end up in love, one is 11 lets say, the other is 19. Perhaps their personal circumstances brought them together, over time they bonded, fell in love and as in any such relationship it turned sexual and mutual. The law would say that they should be broken apart, he should be jailed and she should learn that what they did was wrong and dirty and he was a bad man. The result in this case happens to be she becomes afraid of sex, relationships, has confidence and mental issues well into adulthood. Was that application of the law in her interest, his interest or society's interest? How about 11 and 45 year old since a 25 and 45 year old are both adults.

I don't know the right answers but in my mind it's such a complex area that I don't know if hard laws are always the right answer. More focus should be on sex education and I mean not just biology but also relationships.