Should calling an outing a date change the rules we've already used for meeting friends?

My fourteen-year-old asked to meet a classmate at the café after school. I said yes, with the same pickup time we use for friends. Then she called it a date, and I changed my answer.

Our rule had always been "no dating until sixteen." I made it when she was much younger and didn't think much about what it would cover. She now asks whether she can sit at the same café with the same person if they agree not to use the word.

I do have concerns: how they treat each other, whether she feels pressured and how school will feel if it ends badly. My partner says those concerns deserve conversations, not a two-year ban triggered by a label. I worry that saying yes will sound as though we've dropped every boundary at once.

We know the classmate from school events, but not his family well. No arrangements have been made yet. How would you revisit the old rule and define expectations for this actual outing, without demanding that she describe a relationship as friendship to get permission?