>>3046217Shota is pre- or barely-pubescent. In anime terms it usually means below about 12 or 13, because 14 is where you his Standard Shonen Hero age and SSHes usually have love interests and act like impulsive adults.
But the primary bit of shota is an emphasis on innocence and childishness. I also like to define it as being something of a child in a world of adults - a true shota is a boy surrounded by full adults and has to deal with that (but that might be a bit old-school, much like the shorts (and the giant robot)).
So
>>3046064 doesn't really look like shota because the boy there looks more like an embarrassed teenager than a child.
