Personally, I would favour making the age of consent 18 in the UK (without criminalising people around the same age who go ahead below 18).

Let's assume the age of consent is 18. At that point, my previous two points apply, and it is nobody else's business, no matter how "impressionable" that 18 year old might be. Otherwise, you may as well raise the age of consent to 24, along with the age of voting, the age it is legal to drive, etc, etc.