The bibliographic search has been carried out continuously since 2015. Databases of academic journals such as Web of Science, Scopus, ProQuest and EBSCOhost have been accessed. Searches have also been conducted on Google (academic and generalist), as well as university libraries in Spain, China and the United States. The main search terms were the following: sexualisation and advertising, sexualising agents, childhood and communication, child stereotypes, the commercialization of childhood, perceptions of sexualised girls, social networks and childhood, female objectification, digital advertising and childhood, fashion and childhood, as well as English translations of these expressions. Selections of the works analysed (books and articles) was made by taking into account their relevance (starting from the indexing of the source that published them in reference databases, their position in such databases, the number of international contributions in the publication, the number of citations received both by the publication and by the work itself, and/or their disseminative impact in the generalist media), its timelessness, and the appropriateness of its content to the sexualisation phenomenon studied. In this regard, all of the results of searches carried out in relation to the sexual identity of individuals, their sexual orientation, and/or pathologies and clinical treatments linked to sexuality have been excluded from the study. We have also excluded all works in the medical field of health sciences from the study.

In a later phase, once the most relevant authors in this line of research had been identified (who are those cited repeatedly in the books and articles analysed in the first phase), specific searches were carried out on the scientific production of these authors (based on their names and surnames), again through databases of academic journals, social networks of scientific publications (ResearchGate and Academia), Google, and university libraries. The results of those searches have excluded works not directly or indirectly related to the sexualisation of individuals.

3. Child Sexualisation Factors: marketing on the Internet

Innovations in the type of marketing that promotes children’s products through the electronic media have been called “Childhood marketing” (Kunkel and Castonguay, 2012: 403). Marketing children “is not compatible with genuine family welfare” because it has proven to be “non-spontaneous and narcissistic, with the aim of gaining benefits and using a type of standardized language and gestures” (Marôpo et al., 2017: 73-74).

3.1. Adult Marketing

Fashion brands demonstrate their seriousness in competing in the children’s fashion segment (0-12 years) by launching their own children’s lines. This helps them to increase their sales, since “branded” children’s clothing provides a style status in which the brand is paramount. However, it should be noted that this phenomenon is not new, as promotions directed at children began in 1950 and accelerated in 1980 (Cook, 2017).

Specifically, marketing oriented toward female minors has repeatedly presented a hypersexualized image of girls that leads to a certain idea: they expect to look sexy, but this reduces their sexuality to a single aspect, according to Peggy Orenstein (Kingston, 2016).

As a consequence of the demographic downturn, the lower number of siblings has increased expenditures on children. This is the reason why marketing is oriented toward children rather than to their parents, and explains their profile as