If AOC were lowered or eliminated and pedophiles were able to pursue sexual relationships with children/tweens/teens then there would be another danger that would exist for those children/tweens/teens:

That of Disease.

Just this past year sexually-transmitted infections were up 20%. They are both bacterial and viral and intercourse is not even required to transmit some of them from one person to another. The infections that children/tweens/teens would be in danger of contracting from pedophiles (and other adults) are the following:

syphilis
gonorrhea and drug-resistant gonorrhea
chlamydia
hepatitis B
herpes
HIV
HPV
genital warts

And those are the diseases that I am aware of, though there could be more or newer ones. This spectre of disease alone...all by itself... is plenty of reason to continue to strictly prohibit sexual contact between children and adults.