the age of consent

As a 16 yr old myself ive never understood why people have a problem with 18-20 yr olds (that to me is the absolute limit and it may go up by 1 the old you get) dating a 16 yr old. it is the age of consent and even though i understand a lot of people would rather not date a child it really baffles me when people try to compare a 19 yr old and 17 year or a 16 yr old and an 18 yr old to guys who are 10+ years younger than the 16 yr old they want to date.

Do i just have a flawed understanding of what the age of consent actually means? because it is really confusing how some people act over it when a recently turned adult is getting with a teenager who is about to be an adult.