Child recruits in ISIS are increasing by the thousands in ISIS-controlled areas, mainly in Syria. Although child recruitment in terrorist groups is not a new concept, the situation with ISIS is especially concerning. In the past, child recruits have been used mainly as a source of propaganda and shock-factor by terrorist groups; they never had an actual purpose. ISIS, on the other hand, is recruiting children and treating them exactly like they treat adults, by using them to carry out shootings and suicide bombings, resulting in thousands of children being killed through acts of suicide bombings and ground warfare. Another consequence is that eliminating ISIS will be even more difficult because the next generation is being raised from a young age to be members of the terrorist organization.

One major reason that ISIS targets young children is that they are often vulnerable and therefore easy to brainwash. One woman living in Syria comments that she is terrified that ISIS will take her 14-year-old nephew and recruit him. Horrifying videos have also surfaced of young boys under the age of ten shooting and beheading people. Andrew Jaworski ’17 comments, “ISIS is publicizing these horrible images and videos as a way of putting fear in the eyes of their targets.” Although ISIS is not the first extremist group to use children as soldiers, the way in which ISIS implements this scare tactic is unlike anything the world has seen before and the Islamic State’s use of children in this horrifying way has spread concern across the globe. Katy Shannon ’17 comments: “It makes me upset that ISIS is actively recruiting young children to carry out arguably some of their most dangerous missions, and I think that it’s terrible not only for ISIS, but also other terrorist groups because it sets a standard for other terrorists groups and makes it normal to use children to commit these deadly acts.”Although ISIS is not the first terrorist group to use children for assistance, they are the first to carry out the same missions that adults would typically carry out and escaping the clutches of ISIS as a child is not easy.

Once children are forcibly taken by ISIS, it is extremely difficult for them to escape, because they have either been brainwashed into thinking that the outside world, including their families, are “nonbelievers,” or the consequence of getting caught trying to escape is not worth the risk. However, for the children who do escape, the psychological toll that their time in ISIS has had on them is devastating. One CNN reporter witnessed some troubling things when he interviewed children and their families in Iraq. During one interview with five-year-old Saman and his family, Saman, who was one of the ones to escape, was so terrified by the sound of the rain hitting the tent roof that he crawled onto his grandfather’s lap. Another child “refused to let anyone cut his hair even after fleeing ISIS because he had been told he couldn’t do that.” The reporter also mentioned that some children have seizures when they even hear the word “ISIS.”

The use of children in ISIS is just one of the organization’s ruthless tactics to destroy their enemies and to spread their terrorist wrath across the world. In regards to the organization’s extreme tactics, Jen Psaki, U.S. State Department Spokeswoman, told CNN: “There’s no question what we’re combating with ISIS’s propaganda machine is something we have not seen before.” Now that ISIS is beginning to involve children in their deadly missions, the world will be on the lookout for any drastic changes in the Islamic State’s actions, or in the rest of the world’s reactions.