Cars for girls and dolls for boys: overview about gender differences in the relationship between children and the digital media

Gender conceptualisation is an essential component of forming one’s identity from an early age, and mass media play an important role in developing the constructs one has about gender. For that reason, researchers have been studying the construction of media messages focusing on gender representation for some time. Other researchers have been looking into gender differences concerning children’s access and use of the media. This paper contributes to rethinking impact by presenting a critical overview of empirical studies about young audiences and the media, with a lens on gender issues. It organises differences and commonalities found by researchers in the following categories: media access, media use and exposure, media socialisation, parental mediations, and media literacies. The literature shows that despite some policies favouring universal Internet diffusion having helped reduce gaps in children’s access to the media, gender differences in children’s media use persist (McQuillan & Neill, 2009). Both boys and girls use all platforms (Lemish, Alony, & Studies, 2014), but they use them differently (McQuillan & Neill, 2009). In particular, boys and girls use social media differently (McQuillan & Neill, 2009). They also prefer different news topics, although they are equally interested in the news (Lemish et al., 2014). Children of different gender also have varying experiences of civic and political participation (Brites, 2018). When it comes to media concerns, while boys and girls are equally concerned about pornographic content, they reveal some differences in their concerns about issues like violence, contact and conduct (Livingstone, Kirwil, Ponte, & Staksrud, 2014). Gender gaps were also found in studies focusing on parental media mediation and parental role-modelling concerning media habits (Nabi & Krcmar, 2016; Talves & Kalmus, 2015). However, unlike some stereotyped ideas that males are more skilled in technology, the research shows that there are no significant gender differences in motoric media skills (Nikken, 2017) nor in news media literacy (Craft, Maksl, & Ashley, 2013; Kleemans & Eggink, 2016; Maksl, Ashley, & Craft, 2015). Nevertheless, results regarding ICT skills are still inconclusive (McQuillan & Neill, 2009). Based on this literature analysis, the paper also contributes to the scholarly debate by discussing the literature gaps and suggesting future research lines in the field.