Downing Street has rejected a call from a leading public health expert to consider lowering the age of consent for sex to 15.
Professor John Ashton, president of the Faculty of Public Health, said society sends "confused" signals about when sex is permitted.
But a No 10 spokesman said: "We reject the call to lower the age of consent.
"The current age is in place to protect children and there are no plans to change it."
Prof Ashton's intervention comes against a backdrop of official figures which suggest that up to a third of teenagers have sex before the present age of consent of 16.
He told Sky News: "The problem we have got is we have got this massive sexualisation and pornographication of childhood and early adolescence.
Lowering the age would make it easier for 15-year-olds to get contraception "Huge commercial interests - pop music, fashion, internet pornography everywhere, social media.
"There doesn't seem to be any real appetite among politicians and leaders to address this.
"In the meantime, our young people are becoming sexually active at younger and younger ages.
"If we are not going to create an environment where they are not sexualised, then we need to address their needs."
He added: "What we know from other European countries that have lower ages of sexual consent, I am thinking here particularly about the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark, is that very often what that leads to is where there's an atmosphere of discussion within the family, within the school, within the social environment, they actually defer putting off sex, even though the age of consent is lower, and that they have lower teenage pregnancy rates.
"It also means if they are not indulging in what's illegal activity, they won't be frightened to come forward for help if they are getting involved in a dangerous situation with an older male who's grooming them or what have you.
"We have got this conundrum. Where you have got illegal activity which large numbers of people are engaging in, you are creating an environment of risk, potential abuse, potential exploitation.
"We need to do something about the sexualisation of childhood, and we need to do something about responding properly to the needs of young people who are becoming sexually active, perhaps with somebody of a similar age where it is part of a normal maturing process into adult life, but also so that we can begin to tackle this problem of girls particularly, being exploited by older males."
The Faculty of Public Health, part of the Royal Colleges of Physicians, gives advice to ministers and civil servants although it is independent of government.
David Tucker, head of policy at the NSPCC, said he would be happy to have a debate on the issue but said he would want to see the evidence for Prof Ashton's claims.
He said: "Has there really been a significant change in the amount of young people having sex over the past 20 or 30 years?
"If it has changed, then is reducing the age of consent the most sensible way to deal with it?"
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