This conversation came up a couple of years ago with some of my old school friends.
We were discussing old GF's, etc and someone mentioned how pretty much every one of us would have now been classed as sex offenders
For example, most of them had GF's in our school year when they were 15, however, as soon as one of the partners reach 16 they are, in the eyes of the law, a sex offender. None of us ever considered or discussed it at the time as no one cared.
However those circumstances are not the reason for the law (which I think is correct to keep in place). However there does need to be some interpretation between the ages of the people involved. I.e. anyone outside school age involved with a