“There is no doubt that kids seeing positively portrayed gay characters could have a significant effect that would contribute to such children’s learning about the world and who is in it,” said Edward Schiappa, a professor of comparative media studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

But doing so is a risk for children’s entertainment companies, who have a financial incentive to make movies as widely accessible — and therefore as non-controversial — as possible.

“It can be any little thing that will set off a firestorm,” said Lori Pearson, lead critic for Kids-In-Mind, a nonpartisan, non-religious group that warns parents of potentially unsavory content in movies. Pearson points to a time in the mid-1990s when a rumor spread that in “The Little Mermaid,” there was a suggestive bulge in the pants of the man officiating the wedding of Princess Ariel. Conservative groups called on parents to boycott not just the 1989 classic but all Disney products. The bulge, of course, was nothing more than the cartoon character’s knee.

“Now, especially with the advent of Twitter and places where information can travel quickly, if a certain group decides something in the content is unacceptable, it will spread, and people will decide based on that information not to go see the movie,” Pearson said. “And that will ultimately affect the box office.”