Hi all! As promised, here is the proposed text of the newest version of the rules. The staff has gone through like eight drafts and literally thousands and thousands of matrix posts to get here, so please be kind. You can see @limeey's comment on the transparency post if you want more insight into how this sausage was made.
We are opening these rules to commentary from the community before they go into effect. To be clear, this isn't a vote, but we will take all community feedback into account and answer whatever questions we can before finalizing anything.
Please keep in mind that we are not Reddit, we do not have Reddit's resources, and safety and consent are our priorities.
I'll post the draft in two parts in two comments: The new sidebar, and the FAQ/clarifications page.
I think the wording of the rules in the proposal are fine, as there is no specific mention of "canonical age".
Boruto drawn as a 50-year-old may not be canonical (which is often the case in fanfiction anyways), but it's evident from the picture that their age is not 12 (in the picture).
So what about Midna from Zelda or Rebecca from Cyberpunk? Both are very popular in fandom. It also shirks around the question of the 3000-year old loli dragon. Technically that would be allowed.
Edit: Eh the FAQ is a pretty decent way of solving the issue. I'm ok with it.
Rebecca from Cyberpunk is clearly characterized as an adult who is small due to body modification and, IDK, hormones? Anyway she's not a child in any meaningful way. I see no problem there. I'm not a zelda guy so I can't speak to that other example.