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Previous research on gender differences in young people's digital development has shown that boys and girls differ in frequency and type of internet use, but vital gaps in the literature remain. In recent years, gender is increasingly considered to be a multidimensional concept with a growing number of young people identifying as non-binary (i.e. genderfluid, an umbrella term for gender identities that are not conforming to the male/female dichotomy). Non-binary youth more frequently engage with a variety of digital risks such as misinformation, cyberbullying, and co-rumination than binary youth. Despite this, no research so far has investigated how digital development differs between non-binary and binary youth. In this online survey study among adolescents in six European countries (N=6,221), we focus on differences in digital skills and digital activities. Non-binary youth tend to make greater use of the internet for content creation and mental and physical health information than boys and girls. They also report greater content creation skills than boys and girls. Disparities in terms of entertainment and social relationship use are also found. Furthermore, findings on digital skills indicate that non-binary youth closely mirror boys in this regard. We conclude with recommendations for future research that should help bolster our understanding of how digital contexts may predict the development and well-being of non-binary youth.

Although young people spend increasing amounts of time online, many gaps remain in the literature regarding the effect of time spent online on young people's development of well-being. We focus on the influence of time spent online on feelings of self-reported (a) depression and (b) health of adolescents. We also consider the mediating role of digital skills and digital activities, each of which is broken down into five dimensions. We collected data through a two-wave longitudinal online survey among 3,942 adolescents aged 12–17 years in six European countries (first wave [W1] = 2021; second wave [W2] = 2022). We specifically want to understand how feelings of self-reported depression and health at W2 are affected by the time spent online at W1, and how digital skills and digital activities at W2 mediate these relationships. Findings indicate a significant increase in feelings of depression and a decrease in self-reported health between W1 and W2. Regarding digital skills, information navigation and communication and interaction were linked to greater well-being (lower depression and greater self-reported health). Regarding digital activities, the development of social relationships online was linked to lower self-reported depression and greater health, while frequently using the Internet to look up information on physical or mental health issues was strongly linked to greater depression and lower health. We discuss the implications of these findings for practice and policy on young people's well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]