Should Children Be Prosecuted For Their Actions?

There are an estimated 250,000 child soldiers in our world today. They are recruited through the government as well as rebel groups. But not all children are used for combat but they are used for a type of some other job such as cooks or spies. Children are recruited because they are easy recruitments. Children are nowadays being forced to become a child soldier as they have lost their families and have nowhere else to go. During the children's time as a child soldier they are influenced into taking drugs and killing. As a result they are forced into combat by their commander. On one side of the argument, many believe that child soldiers are not responsible for the actions they perform. On the other side many believe that child soldiers are replicas of child criminals; child criminals are prosecuted. Over the course of the past decades child soldiers have been responsible for some of the most brutal acts in wartime. Tackling this issue is hard as most of the countries containing child soldiers don’t have a functioning government that is willing to take action. Thus child soldiers should not be prosecuted for their actions.


Children are easy recruitments as they do not have power against rebel groups so that makes them easier to transform them into child soldiers. According to SOS Children's village large amounts of children are being kidnapped and once they reach military bases they have to follow all orders from the commander or else they will be killed. Child Soldiers International states that children are more vulnerable to recruitment if they are poor, separated from their families, displaced from their homes, living in a war or combat zone or have a limited access to education. In some cases children have lost their families and they seek help from military bases but then are pushed into the act of being a child soldier. However many children “volunteer” often as a result of economic or social pressures that have been created during war or they believe that they group offers an income, food or security if they become a child soldier. There are many consequences of being a child soldier that could potentially be life threatening. This includes being killed or receiving a serious injury that could affect your body for the rest of their life. One other reason why rebel groups choose children is because they do not have a sense of danger unlike adults which makes it easier for them to be in war as they do not fear anything.

Children are put in very difficult situations during this time and it is hard for them decide what to do because they have no support from family or friends. Their option is to seek help from military bases because they believe that the group will offer basic needs such as food, water and shelter. But they get tricked into becoming a child soldier. They can’t turn back from the option because they don’t have a family to go back to or a place where they can be safe. Imagine if you saw your family being killed and the only thing you could do is watch them die. Your first reaction would be shock and then you go to a military base because that is the only place you can go. You were taken away and transformed into a child soldier. The only thing you would see is guns and brutal violence. Would you want to be in a difficult situation like that. An example of this is Ishmael Beah, an ex child soldier. He faced a challenge similar to this. He had gone to a military base to seek help for his family. As he made his way back home he was stumbled upon the civil war in Sierra Leone. When he arrived at his house he saw that his house was burning down and he knew that there was no chance of his parents being alive. He was furious, all he could think about during his time as a child soldier was his family. Even Though these children are put in difficult situations and they are forced into being a child soldier. Some may argue that these children have made their decision on becoming a child soldier and joining rebel groups. They join rebel groups as an act of patriotism or to level out their family’s deaths. So not all children are forced into war. Children such as these knew what they were doing thus should be taken into custody.

When children are kidnapped they are influenced by the acts of taking high dosages of drugs and alcohol. This means that they are not in control of their actions. They are a completely different person to what they were before. This is caused by the children being forced to child soldiery.


“The commander forced us to watch Rambo to prepare us for war”. -Ishmael Beah


This means that the children are not just influenced but forced into violence. With all these problems another challenge that the children face is they way that they are attached to violence that is around them. More often than not children have no say in whether they enlist or not and once recruited the children become brainwashed through the use of drugs and alcohol. The drugs and alcohol make the children become more compliant enabling them to commit atrocities which they never would have before. Sometimes the children are not just influenced but addicted to drugs and alcohol. This means that that they are not in control of themselves.


In conclusion children should not be prosecuted for their actions because they are easy targets. They do not have power over the commanders. Two they are being forced because of social or economic pressures. Three they are influenced by high dosages of drugs and alcohol. Which means that they are unaware of their actions.