Children commonly start out in support positions, acting as porters, cooks, spies, or sexual slaves. Often, though, these children end up on the front lines of combat, e.g., planting or detecting landmines or participating in first-wave assaults. Child soldiers are frequently subject to extreme abuse and manipulation during training and combat, and generally suffer higher casualty rates than adults. Often plied with drugs and given promises of food, shelter, and security, child soldiers are at times forced to commit atrocities against other armed groups and civilian populations, including sometimes their own families and communities. This use of children in war is greatly facilitated by an estimated 500 million small arms and assault weapons worldwide.
Several initiatives are under way internationally to address the problem of child soldiers.
In the policy arena, a growing movement is seeking international agreements raising the minimum age for soldiering to 18. Raising this to 18 would add protection for children ages 15-17 and for those passed off as older than they are. In 1998, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan declared that UN military peacekeepers must be at least 18 and should preferably be older than 21. Attention is also being given to the need to assist child soldiers after conflict. Many former child soldiers have a difficult time reentering civilian life, and communities frequently have trouble reaccepting them.