An age of consent law serves primarily to protect underage girls from rape. Rape is often hard to prove because you can't prove lack of consent. An age of consent law means that if sex took place and a girl says she did not consent, then he's guilty. Potential rapists know this and it deters some rapes against minors. I would like to see society change so that underage girls are free to decide for themselves how they feel about what happened, without pressure, and prosecutors would not pursue a case until/unless the girl feels it should be pursued.

Just to give a broader alternate point of view, since I haven't seen it stated lately...

There is nothing wrong with a sexual attraction to young girls. It is not a desire to rape children. It does not contain evil within it. It is possible that it could even be acted upon in a way that would work out well for everyone, with the exactly right pedophile and the exactly right girl, under changed circumstances, which would include a change in laws and attitudes.

However, there is strong reason to believe that there would remain a serious risk of harm to the girl in the real world of pedophiles and girls who we cannot screen in advance for being exactly right -- which in turn would be a brake on changing those laws and attitudes. As I see it, a pedophile can feel fine about his attractions keeping these two things in mind.

Sexual encounters carry the possibility of emotional hurt at any age, but on average the chances of this and the severity go down markedly the older a person (especially a female) is.

What is a far more dramatic difference is that sex is a huge part of what gives life meaning for adults, and those risks are justified by the rewards. Sex for prepubescents is at best a minor aspect of life that feels good.

Young teens often have strong sex drives and will choose to have sex with peers. However, young teen relationships with adults have a strong tendency to involve coercion or misrepresentation and end badly a high percentage of the time. As a result, adults are prohibited from engaging in such relationships.