Just like children anywhere, those in combat regions also want to earn pocket money. However, paid positions for children in Syria come with life-threatening consequences. The UN found that young children are frequently used by various committees in Syria as "messengers, spies and guards," as well as informants—a position that they are paid for, but "which exposes them to retaliation and punishment."

Kids have these jobs because they are often unable to spend the day in class. The UN found that in Aleppo, Damascus, and Dara’a, military forces regularly occupy schools and use them as bases. This has led to some schools becoming military targets, others being shut down, and a general deprivation of education for young people in those areas.

As more and more children roam away from schools that are no longer operational, or not safe to attend, fighters offer increasing responsibility to young boys under the guise of a new educational system. In the past, fighters frowned upon to give a boy under 15 a rifle, but now, boys much younger than this carry automatic weapons. One fighter in Aleppo explained in the UN report that, “Often young boys are braver and cleverer than adult fighters." The boys are trained to use the weapons in makeshift educational programs: recruitment masquerading as a replacement for their schools-turned-military bases.

The kids, some under the age of 8, but most commonly 14 to 15 years old, are sent to training camps where recruitment officers offer religious education alongside weapons training. The children, in turn, are paid for attending. However, when class is over and the camp ends, the children are not allowed to return home. Instead, they are sent into active combat zones and in some cases, on suicide bombing missions.

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The religious education paints a very harsh and violent picture for the children, a process that is likened to brainwashing. "The sight of armed and masked men on stage ‘educating’ young boys is obviously a distressing one," Kristyan Benedict, Amnesty International UK’s campaign manager for Syria, told The Independent. "These supposedly ‘inspirational’ videos are actually fresh evidence that Isis is cruelly robbing an untold number of young people of their childhood, brainwashing them and almost certainly exposing them to terrible dangers."

Benedict refers to a recent push by ISIS-controlled media to promote happy young male recruits through a series of videos, such as the "Cubs of the Islamic State" video. The children are dressed like mini-adult fighters, with their faces covered like any high-ranking ISIS official, and holding very adult, heavy-duty weapons. They often sing in their high-pitched, childish voices, or are shown listening to their "teachers;"other ISIS adults preaching to the crowd.

Though the UN has called the act of child recruitment a war crime, it seems ISIS is only ramping up efforts to increase its numbers of pint-sized soldiers. As one Syrian fighter put it, "children are not children anymore."

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