"Statistically women abuse kids at much the same rate as men do", really I would like to see the stats that back that up.
A study I just read from the UK says that 5 - 10% of child sexual abuse is carried out by male and females together and only 5% is carried out exclusively by female abusers. That is far from 50/50.
Clearly this policy is not trying to label ALL men as sexual predators but it is trying to reduce the risk of not only the child being abused but also it is protecting the male passenger from an unfounded accusation.
The ironic thing is that many posts above say that this is PC gone mad, infact it is the opposite, not allowing airlines to have these types of rules is PC gone mad.