Sounds like terrible parenting to even allow that.
When you got 5% of the population committing > 50% of all violent crime in the US, you stay away from that population. Common sense
Unless they are good athletes?
Actually, my impression is the girl's parents used their influence with the police and SA to have the boy arrested and charged.
Most of the time the police are not getting involved when the kids are that close in age..
The way the Illinois law is written, if two 16 year olds engage in multiple consensual private part touching; both could be charged with criminal sexual abuse and forced to register as sex offenders.
Again, the police generally have better things to do.