At present I would keep age of consent laws as is and mostly because we don't allow children to absorb the rights/responsibilities of adulthood at a young age. Then, at the age of 18, we expect them to be insta-adult. This, IMO, is because everything revolves around public school.
We need to rethink this. Call it nature or God's will or what have you, puberty happens. From, perhaps, the age of 14 the no-longer-children should be on a school-work track that accommodates their their new status and allows them to be adult. Adult in sexual attitudes, too. Responsible.
BTW, I'm not advocating teen sex and certainly not sex with older people. That's where the responsible part of the rights-responsibilities equation comes in.
When/where I grew up, "kids" did farm work from the time they could. I first drove a tractor at 5, although it was just a little one compared to the tractors out this way.
Here at 14 farm kids are shuffling semis and large three axle trucks around grain farms, and can get a license for the smaller vehicles. Tractors and and a setup to plant can cost a million dollars, and some "kid" will be out there making it go. I think that affects the rules, considerably.
Biologically, perhaps with the amount of soy in our diets in the last 30 years and the estrogenic effects of that, it seems young ladies are developing faster, than their counterparts in my generation--an observation I am far from the only one to make. With the amount of sexual material commonplace in media, those ages might have to be rethought, as biology will not comply with rules except under the most strict circumstances or moral upbringings.
Then, too, with the amount of 'snowflake' nonsense going on in universities, I have counseled my grandchildren to get a trade. Unfortunately, shop programs and technical education seem to be the first things cut from public school systems when they used to be a requirement for graduation (or home ec). Especially with the highly technical nature of emissions, ignition, and other onboard computerized systems in vehicles, construction equipment, and even farm implements nowadays, there is ample opportunity for employment for the capable technician, and electricians, plumbers, and carpenters will always be needed.
Unfortunately, child labor laws prevent them from doing anything like the sort of work I did on construction sites at 14, and because of that, many are stuck in what jobs they can find, usually completely unskilled light labor with little opportunity to use the sorts of tools or do the sort of jobs that will help them later.
