you have hit on an exact, documented logical clash within the Wikipedia editing history for the Fulvia gens.[1]

The Wikipedia editors were actively wrestling with the timeline of Quintus Fulvius Nobilior (who became consul in 153 BC), and they directly used the argument that he could not have been a colonist because he was "a child". [1, 2]

The Wikipedia passage states: [1]

"...and a Quintus Fulvius Nobilior whom Livy mentions as a boy in 180 would have been the right age to achieve the consulship in 153, but certainly would not have been given the responsibility of establishing two colonies while still a child, four years earlier [in 184 BC]."

Where the Editors Got Confused

The Wikipedia editors fell into a trap by conflating two entirely different roles in Roman colonization: [1, 2]

1. The Colonist (Settler): Anyone could be a colonist, and families—including children—moved to newly established colonies.
2. The Colonial Commissioner (Triumvir Coloniae Deducendae): This was a high-level magistrate appointed to layout, govern, and formally establish the colony. [1, 2]

The Quintus Fulvius Nobilior in question was appointed as a colonial commissioner in 184 BC to found the colonies of Potentia and Pisaurum. Because Livy mentions a Fulvius as a "boy" (puer) or youth around 180 BC, the editors concluded that he was a literal "child" in 184 BC and therefore could not hold the high-ranking job of a commissioner. [1, 2]

Why the Editors' Conclusion is Wrong

The editors made a critical error regarding Roman terminology and political maneuvers:

• The Political Loophole: Quintus’s father, Marcus Fulvius Nobilior (consul of 189 BC), was an immensely powerful man. Roman aristocrats frequently placed their teenage sons (young men in their late teens, legally or colloquially referred to as pueri or adulescentes) onto three-man colonial boards (triumviri). It was a standard political maneuver to fast-track a son's resume and give him early prestige before he was old enough to run for standard magistracies. [1, 2, 3, 4]
• The Meaning of Puer: In Latin elite contexts, puer did not mean an elementary school toddler. A young man of 16 to 18 years old—old enough to serve in the military but not yet a fully independent adult—could easily be described as a puer by older senators like Cato or Livy.
• The Math Works Out: If Quintus was a consul in 153 BC, he would have been in his 40s. Going back 31 years to 184 BC, he would have been roughly 16–19 years old. He was absolutely old enough to be placed on a colonial commission by his powerful father, even if the strict historical records later looked back on him as just a "boy" at the time. [1, 2]

The Wikipedia editors saw the word "boy/child" in the sources for the 180s BC and erroneously assumed it meant a literal small child who could not participate in the founding of a colony. [1]

Would you like to examine the exact Latin passages from Livy regarding the 184 BC colonial foundationsto see how his name is recorded alongside the other commissioners? [1]