This is what I think

I think the difference between a 20 year old and a 40 year old to these people is strictly emotional, since it certainly isn't a legal difference (unless you include the right to drink alcohol, but I heard nothing about alcohol being a factor in these stings). In other words, the older a guy is, the more "disgusting" it is in the eyes of society that they would dare try to chat up and talk to someone who is legally a "child." The legal factor may not increase with age once you are at least five years older than the rugrat, but the sheer disgustingness factor of it in the eyes of our society does. And also, to some extent, our society expects people to be more responsible the older they get, much as Stahn said. Thus, the older you are, the more immoral you are considered for doing such a thing. After all, older people are supposed to "know better" more than young people, correct? A 20 year old is expected to be stupid by our society. But a guy in his 40s is supposed to be wise and respectable to a great degree according to that societal stereotype in reverse.

Since I routinely seek to date much younger women in the age range of 18-early 20s, I see these two above factors at work all the time. While such relationships are entirely legal, I am sometimes told that I am "disgusting" and "irresponsible" for trying to date someone so much younger than me even if doing so is legal. So while the bears can't put me behind bars for dating these younger women of legal age, society seems to feel I should receive some sort of censure for doing it, even if it comes solely in the form of societal condemnation. After all, one of my less open-minded friends in my age group once sagely noted to me when she first learned that I was dating younger women in the "barely legal" age range, "There isn't that much of a difference between a girl who is 16-17 and a girl who is 18-19 other than the fact that you can legally have sex with the latter two girls. But morally, it's no difference at all. Girls who are 18-19 may have most of the legal rights of adults, but they are still just children! I'm sorry, [Diss], but I am not comfortable with some of your decisions. If I was in your place, I would wonder what the hell I was thinking for being with someone that young." Need I say more?