Good to hear we share the ground, I was moved by few people who said that targeted demographic can't be part of the fandom.
I think it might be more my fault than yours, but I don't actually completely understand what that means...
That day I had enormous argument on facebook group about what being a brony means, unfortunately some people think that 8 year olds can't be part of the fandom.
That is unfortunate. I think it all depends on how they interact with it, really. An 8-year-old could be part of the fandom, but if they're just watching the show I wouldn't say it counts. But that cold be argued, too, really.