And how does that reconcile with parental consent?
That doesn’t strike me as resolution, rather just an attempt to pretend the issue doesn’t exist and a mechanism to punish when it refuses to not exist.
Many consensual relationships lead to trouble, yet greater knowledge, regardless of age difference so, based on my own experiences, I’m inclined to agree with Playboy that abstinence is the worst perversion. 
But other than that half-joke, I don’t have any simple answers to these questions. I can point out some simple answers that are wrong.
First, female and male sex are fundamentally very different in basic physiological ways. The idea that the exact same standards should apply, when ‘male’ and ‘female’ are reversed everywhere, is absurd. Legally, society may decide its best course is to pretend that standards should be independent of male/female reversal, but this is political correctness, not reality-based common-sense.
Second,
:eek: Again, the idea that an eighteen-year old has some wisdom on his birthday that he didn’t have the day before may be a useful distinction in law, where arbitrary distinctions may be necessary, but doesn’t conform with reality or common-sense.
My attitude is close but not quite the same. It is all about EQUALITY. There is never absolute total equality and because of the very nature of intense intimacy and appetite and the fascination of being appetizing to someone else and so on, POWER is always involved and, within limits, we tend to find a little bit of inequality kind of hot. But when there’s a whole lot of inequality it just gets exploitative; the weaker party gets taken advantage of or, even if it isn’t really fair to say that the more powerful person takes advantage and benefits, it’s STILL not healthy for the egos and emotional stability and long term sexual happiness of the weaker party (in particular) and the more powerful (to a lesser extent).
Non-adults versus adults is a huge issue because of the massive disparity in power.
Then there’s employer versus employee, teacher versus student, mentally limited person versus fully intelligent and cognizant person, etc. Same idea.
Rather than compile a comprehensive list of each and every place where there is too much power inequality, it’s better to just understand the issue and use common sense about it. But our laws don’t work that way and so we do have specific proscribed situations where you aren’t supposed to do it, and where, if you do, it is the more powerful person who is held accountable.
So, what should common sense dictate us wrt this issue, according to you, and how is it related to physiology?
I somehow would have assumed that it would be more related to culture, sociology and maybe psychology.
Also, I quite distrust “common sense” which is often used as a synonym of “things I’m accustomed to, don’t feel the need to justify, and am not willing to examine critically”.
Or simply : what part of physiology shows us that a 15 yo girl sleeping with a 30 yo man is a bad thing while a 15 yo boy sleeping with a 30 yo woman isn’t?
There probably are some instances of age gaps that would ordinarily be considered taboo, which are actually, due to the particular circumstances of the case, not actually immoral (or vice-versa). It’s possible that an exceptionally mature 15-year-old might actually be mature enough to not be taken advantage of in such a relationship, or that an exceptionally immature 30-year-old might not be. But laws (including the informal, unwritten laws that shape taboos) must by their nature be based on generalities, not on specifics. So we have to draw the line somewhere. Now, where exactly that line should be is of course debatable, but there must be some line.
Oh sure, I think there are always many exceptions and everyone who has sex or a relationship with someone older before they are of legal age is not damaged. It could definitely be a positive experience for them or the younger one could actually be more worldly than the older one and be the one calling the shots.
However, all other things being equal, the age gap = unequal playing field. Probably far more often than it being a good or okay thing, it would involve a more mature person taking advantage of a younger one, and the younger ones deserve protection from older predators.
Also, damage is not always clear to the younger person until many years later. This is a direct result of them not being mature enough to get all the implications that the older person does know or should know at the time.
My feeling is that if the younger person, years later, recalls it as a positive experience, then that’s what it was for them. However, that doesn’t make it okay for an older person to decide to take that opportunity. If they get called out by the law, they knew it was illegal and they deserve what they get.