If we have it that you need to be eighteen to vote, drink alcohol (twenty-one in many states), and almost that to drive, then I don't see the age of consent being eighteen years of age a problem.
I'm not talking about two teens getting it on, learning about sex, being "in the same boat" so to speak, but an adult going after someone under the age of eighteen is wrong.
He's a loser attempting to prey on a young teen because he is probably hiding his homosexuality, or he knows he can't get an adult girl, or an adult guy, and he wants to have control over the encounter that comes with an adult preying on a minor - period.