This article engages with the postfeminist debate on girls’ sexuality in contemporary Italy. The huge popularity among adolescents of social network sites (SNSs), which involve a vast mobilisation of personal images, has given rise to new concerns and a moralising gender panic about girls’ sexuality. Drawing on critical girls’ studies, and based on the outputs of a qualitative research project, the article discusses the gender discourses that emerge from Italian girls’ digital practices on SNSs, with specific reference to girls’ online self-representation through posting and sharing photos on Facebook and other SNSs. The article explores how sexual regulation works among girls in the digital context by analysing the postfeminist norms of female sexual embodiment in contemporary Italian digital culture. In doing so, the article hopes to contribute to the transnational academic debate in media and cultural studies by showing the discursive and visual conditions of possibility which shape girls’ digital sexual subjectivity on social network sites.

There are currently widespread concerns around the impact of media on children's healthy development. This study investigated whether music media influences young children's gender role and self-identity. Thirty-four Grade 1 children and 38 Grade 4 children participated in an experimental study to explore their attitudes towards their own and the opposite gender, their perspectives about gender- and self-presentation, and whether a one-off exposure to music videos influenced their views. Results showed that children demonstrated attitudes consistent with gender stereotypes seen in contemporary music media. The findings indicate a need for early intervention to help children develop healthy attitudes around gender role and self-identity.

Music media contains high levels of sexual content and children spend a considerable amount of time interacting with it. This poses the question as to whether children internalise and imitate the sexual behaviours displayed by music artists. This study observed the self-presentation of 366 children aged 5–14 years at two Australian primary school discos. Children of all age groups were directly imitating both sexual and non-sexual dress and behaviours seen in contemporary music videos. Approximately one third of children observed presented in a sexualised way, which suggests children more broadly may be adopting sexualised behaviours at an early age. The prevalence and nature of sexualised behaviours by children, and the impact of this on children's socio-sexual development, are matters requiring further investigation.