The Horror of Child Soldiers

They include messengers, porters, spies, and sex slaves. So great is the diversity of tasks that many advocates now prefer the less punchy but more accurate term, children associated with fighting forces.” (Gates para 5) Why should an undereducated child who hasn’t committed any crimes besides being involved in a war that they didn’t want to fight be prosecuted for anything. Another example of how some child soldiers aren’t killers comes from an article titled “Prosecuting Child Soldiers For Their Own Safety.” this article says that not all child soldiers murder but some cook or as said in the article “Most girls are forcibly abducted and given roles as cooks, porters, spies, “wives”, and in combat, says Susan McKay of the University of Wyoming, who has interviewed girl soldiers throughout central Africa.” (Leahy para 10) clearly not all children in combat have committed crimes but are rather victims and shouldn’t be prosecuted for being in the military but should be helped and given a second chance at their

Recently, two million children have died over the past ten years due to becoming a child soldier. A huge deplorable development that has extended recently is the increase of child soldiers. Children are constantly being used as soldiers for various reasons. In some countries, there are more child soldiers than they are adults because children are more compliant. Children have been exploited as soldiers because they are being recruited to do a violent action, it is difficult for them to, later on, assimilate back to their lives, and child soldiers are regularly used in developing countries.

They are more easily driven by threats and punishment, so it’s easier to turn them to one’s cause and keep them following that cause than adult soldiers. Children are also easier to keep than adults. They eat less food, and are often “are usually more tolerant than adults to harsh living conditions” (Child Soldiers 1). In addition, child soldiers are considered easily replaceable and therefore dispensable. They are used in reconnaissance, mine clearing, and for front lines fighting to keep the more

After the fall of Roman Empire in 476 c.e . three distinct cultures emerged: eastern continuation of the empire with the capital in Constantinople, Latin West with the variety of barbarian tribes and later Islamic World . Western part that I am going to discuss in this essay will become a powerful theocratic government with economy driven by feudalism and the renowned king as its leader. Christianity played a vital role in all aspects of the life: political, economical, and educational.

Over the last ten years, at least over two million children are forcibly serving in the military, with them only being 10 years old or younger. Another conflict is that child soldiers are being isolated in many parts of africa, and are being used by armed groups as an ongoing conflicts like south asia, asia, and the middle east. Some governments have also recruited children under the age of 18 into their armed forces. One of their biggest challenges is to have freedom in their own hands without having to break the law.

According to, “11 facts about child soldiers”, Children who are poor, have bad education,are displaced from their family, or live in a combat zone are more likely to be forced to join their local army or militia. This proves that they use them to their advantage because they don’t want to take the kids that are rich because their parents are probably paying the government more than the poor people. So the government needs a favor from the poor people so they take their children to fight. The rich kids might also put up more of a fight because they aren’t used to being told what to do and they have things to make their lives easier. Some kids are required to kill a family member (Child Soldiers). If their parents are rich and are paying the government a copious amount of money they won't want to cut them off. They still want to receive that money to pay for weapons for the soldiers or other things that will benefit

What are child soldiers? Child soldiers are people under eighteen who partake in either a regular or irregular armed group in any way. According to Warchild there are an estimated 250,000 child soldiers in the world and often as a part of their recruitment they are forced to either kill or maim a loved one so that they cannot go back home. In Ishmael Beah’s novel A Long Way Gone (Memoirs of a Boy Soldier) the author recounts his life as a child soldier fighting on the government side in Sierra Leone from age thirteen to sixteen. This paper will be attempting to answer the questions of why certain armed groups use children, why it is wrong to do so, and how people are taking a stand to stop it.

This is the same situation that Juliet faced: “Young girls were forced into sexual relationships with men who were above our age. I was forced to become a rebel’s wife. They said “no issues” either you go with this man or we kill you. I got pregnant at a very early age with that man” (“Juliet’s Journey”). There are no excuses that can justify the treatment of child soldiers. Children are among the saddest victims of conflict: they rarely emerge from military service with a sense of their own worth and identity. Worse, they often experience violence that leaves them physically or psychologically scarred. Facing a difficult adolescence, many turn to drugs, alcohol, and anti-social behavior. No child should ever have to face the horrors and lasting effects of war.

They carry messages to different camps and spy on government forces. Unfortunately, numerous children are caught while on the job. Others surrender to the government and then are detained for working for a rebel group, instead of being integrated back into a community. One of the major jobs of a child soldier is being a troop. When armies recruit children, they make sure they are able to find the most children in the most vulnerable places (Mancini 30). Ninety percent of the Lord’s Resistance Army are children (Mancini). Kids are sometimes forced to kill a family member or watch them be killed. Most younger children are recruited as suicide bombers. Children do not get stopped by armed forces when they run around a community. Therefore, they are able to bring out any sort of attack ( Mancini 21). Children recruited as suicide bombers are easily influenced into thinking that after they carry out their mission, they will go to heaven (25). One-third of child troops in the world are girls (56). When girls are exposed to killing family members and abducting other children, their girlhood is warped and relationships towards people change dramatically (58). On the other hand, girls may experience pleasure while battling on the front line because they finally feel equal to men. The girls that are not fighting on the battlefield are the “wives.” They are the children that are raped and prematurely give birth to kids whose

However this is not a reality for children in war zones. Many of them get abducted from schools, out of their homes, or anywhere the rebels or the government is able to get to them. But, why are children the preferred “soldier”? According to Somasundaram in her article “Child Soldier: Understanding the Context, children are easily impressed, which is the choice of some military leaders. They believe children are less likely to question orders than adults due to fear” (Somasundaram, 2002 page 1270). Children easily believe what they are told, as their experience and maturity levels are not the same as adults. In addition, uneducated children are more likely to believe these “leaders” as they may not know any

Children all across world are being exploited as child soldiers. Everyday kids younger the age of 10 are putting their lives on the line mostly by force. ¨Over the last ten years, two million children have been killed in conflict. Over one million have been orphaned, over six million have been seriously injured or permanently disabled and over ten million have been left with serious psychological trauma.¨(Children In Conflict). A child soldier is a child with armed forces; they’re trained to fight, cook, be porters, messengers, informant spies, etc. Countries all across the world have been using children to fight, places like the United Kingdom, Africa, and Asia lean on children to do their dirty work regardless of what laws are put into place for recruitment age.

As this quote from Riyad Al-Najem states, “In some areas the main reason of child recruitment is poverty, parents can’t find food for their kids, so they push them into armed groups to get money and food.” (PBS 2016) This shows how through being poor extra income is needed to have a good life. Other children are fighting because they have nothing to make money and no one to give them food and provide necessities. A boy named Charlie who was highlighted in an article by NPR interviewing Alexandra Zavis, “....his only source of income was a stall that was attacked and destroyed when his town was invaded by rebel troops about a year ago. And he made the decision to join the same rebels that had destroyed his livelihood because he needed a way to survive.”(NPR 2014) As you can now clearly see when nothing is left for you to live you are almost needed to find a way to make money and for these kids, it is through war. One kid also was fighting to provide yet again, this becomes especially evident when he says, “... I would be beaten up by people my age who were part of the Al Shabab… They made me want to join the TFG so I can defend myself.”(The New York Times 2010) As you can see all kids want to do is provide, and they sometimes choose the only option, and this is one of the main reasons why the world is still teeming with child

Around 120,000 adolescent children are now engaged in conflicts throughout Africa (“Child Soldiers: An Overview” 4). In Sudan, for instance, thousands of children, some as young as 12, were recruited against their will into separatist and government groups (“Child Soldiers: An Overview” 5). Thousands more children have been enlisted into the armed forces throughout Asia and the Pacific. The most significant numbers are in Afghanistan, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and recently, Cambodia. Myanmar, a country in Asia, has some of the most child soldiers throughout the world, with children being recruited into both non-government and government armed forces (“Child Soldiers: An Overview” 6). The number of child soldiers has been decreasing annually, but these children are still being taken against their will.

Technology in education is not a new concept, especially at the college level. Universities are encouraged to offer online courses, or as freelance journalist Chrissie Long and many other experts call them, MOOCs (massive online open courses), to reach out to more students and provide them with a more convenient style of learning (455). While MOOCs certainly have their strengths, how far should universities go? What is the future of online education? Should colleges of the future only offer online courses, or should face-to-face classes still be the primary form of education? Blended courses, though not without faults of their own, can combine the best elements of

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