Let children be children. Real life will come at them quickly and oftentimes cruelly soon enough.

There is no need for adults associated with campaigns, corporations, or television and film studios to foist their ideological or political views upon children or use them in campaign or propaganda material pushing their biases and personal agendas.

It’s actually quite disturbing on a number of levels.

'MINI AOC' ENDS PARODY VIDEOS AFTER RECEIVING 'DEATH THREATS,' 'HARASSMENT' FROM THE LEFT, FAMILY SAYS

Nor should children ever be manipulated by adults around them so those adults can get their 15 minutes of fame – or worse, cash-in on the back of a child.

Those points should be obvious, but sadly are not.

All of which brings us to a truly troubling situation where Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., can step up, do the right thing, and hopefully dial down some twisted hate in the process.

That situation is the death threats directed at a little 8-year-old girl and her family. The girl is named Ava Martinez but has become better known as Mini AOC.

With the encouragement and even prompting from the adults in her life, Ava began to mimic Ocasio-Cortez in parody videos and photos.

Those videos then enraged some of the more unhinged minds on the left. So much so, that they began to send death threats to the little girl and her family while doxing them in the process.

Once their home address and personal phone numbers were discovered and targeted, all of the parody sites were shut down by a family literally fearful for their lives.

“Ava will not be doing any more Mini-AOC content,” her stepfather said. “The left’s harassment and death threats have gone too far for our family. We have been getting calls on our personal phone numbers. For our safety and for our child’s safety, we have deleted all Mini-AOC accounts."

Again, it is more than fair to question the motives of the parents for even putting an innocent young girl in such a position.

That said, when a somewhat predictable, hate-filled, and threatening response emerged from the left, there truly is one person above all who can address and lessen it in the most timely and effective way.

That person is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez herself.

During her brief time in Congress this year, Ocasio-Cortez she has dealt out insults, sarcasm and even politically incorrect ageism smacks on a regular basis. Surely, she is a big enough person to accept a few parodies from a young girl.

Republicans, conservatives and Christians have been insulted and shredded every week for years by "Saturday Night Live" and have rarely complained. And those are adults dealing with adults.

Even if Ocasio-Cortez is so thin-skinned and insecure that she mentally can’t handle a parody from a little girl, she can still pretend to be mature enough to step up and do the right thing by calling out the haters trying to “defend” her.

There are few times in life and in politics when the correct thing to do becomes so obvious.

As we have seen with the assault of a conservative journalist and the crowbar attack on the skull of another person that required 25 staples to close the gaping wound, the violence from Antifa and others on the left is now fully out of control.

If Ocasio-Cortez does not see death threats made against an 8-year-old girl as a major red warning flag, she may need to borrow the glasses that little girl wears in her parody videos.

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In this case, Ocasio-Cortez singularly has the power to either help heal, or sow more divisiveness and anger with her silence.

A frightened young girl awaits her response.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE BY DOUGLAS MACKINNON