The military use of children can take place in three different ways: children can participate directly in conflicts as child soldiers, they can be used in support roles, such as porters, spies, messengers and guards, or they can be abused for political and propaganda purposes.

Children have always been easy targets for indoctrination for military purposes, as they are easily influenced. In the past, children were also captured and forcibly recruited, or they volunteered to escape the prevailing circumstances.

Throughout history, children have repeatedly been involved in military operations, even when this violated cultural norms. In the First World War, 250,000 boys under the age of 18 were able to join the army in Great Britain. In the Second World War, child soldiers fought across Europe, in the Warsaw Uprising, in the Jewish resistance, for the Nazi army, and for the Soviet Red Army.

Following the First World War, the League of Nations adopted the Geneva Declaration of the Rights of the Child in 1924. Despite this effort, millions of children remained unprotected from indoctrination, war, and murder during the Second World War. The lack of legal protection for children in wartime, which facilitated their exploitation, can be linked to the absence of a universally accepted definition of the term “child” during the Second World War.

The youngest known soldier of the First World War was Momčilo Gavrić, who joined the 6th Artillery Division of the Serbian Army at the age of 8, after Austro-Hungarian troops killed his entire family in August 1916.

The youngest member of the US Army in World War II was 12-year-old Calvin Grahm, who lied about his age when he was drafted into the US Navy. His true age only came to light after he was wounded.

The Hitler Youth was founded in Nazi Germany as an organization that provided children with physical training and indoctrinated them with Nazi ideology. At the beginning of the war, the Hitler Youth had a total of 8.8 million members. Hitler Youth members first experienced conflict after the British air raids on Berlin in 1940. In early 1945, numerous Hitler Youth soldiers were taken from school and sent to fight in the war.

Many child soldiers served in the Soviet armed forces during World War II. Orphans often joined the Red Army voluntarily and unofficially. Children were often affectionately called “sons of the regiment.”

The training of the Imperial Japanese Army began in schools. Military exercises were an integral part of physical education. Children aged 14 to 17 were drafted to fight in the Battle of Okinawa.

Currently, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) defines a child soldier as “any child – boy or girl – under the age of 18 who is in any capacity part of a regular or irregular armed force or group.” The age limit of 18 was introduced in 2002 as part of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Prior to 2002, the 1949 Geneva Convention set the minimum age for participation in armed conflict at 15.