Actually, 27 states set the age of consent at 16 and another13 at 17. Only 10 set it as high as 18.
They set up age of consent lower to enable more men to get away with exploiting teens (male AND female).
These teens can’t opt out of school, consent to surgery, drive a bid, vote, or drink. But they can agree to sex of any type with an adult male and oh wow suddenly they can maturely handle all those repercussions - including pregnancy, disease, abuse, and emotional devastation as well as moral corruption.
Sure.