16 year olds are not kids or children, they are teens old enough to get a probationary driving licence, get married, fight in wars, and be sentenced as adults for crimes in some jurisdictions.

Until our soft, effette and degenerate times decided that people in their late teens and even in their 20s are children who need protecting, it was normal for post-pubescent teens to fool around and have sex, and nobody batted an eye. There's a million miles between adults fucking babies and seven year old kids, and having sex with a 16 or 17 year old who is old and mature enough to know exactly what they're getting into.

Let's be honest: late (post-puberty) consent laws are not about protecting children. They are about infantilising adults and near-adults, and perverts who want to control the sexuality of others.