User blog comment:FairyRaven/Fairy Tail Chapter 425: Sabertooth X792, Review and Commentary/@comment-24784846-20150324024207/@comment-25111584-20150324180342

It is, according to this page as editted by Lady Chaos.

I dunno, never really saw any breaking of canon myself. Except for an OP Gray in some situations, maybe. And trivia like the inspiration for Gray's Ice-Make: Lance are always nice. ;)

Yeah, age doesn't mean anything, but I'm pretty sure Mashima isn't planning to introduce IT characters anyway. .-.