[[quoteright:330:[[Anime/MobileSuitGundam00 http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/g00childsoldiers.jpg]]]]

->''Nothing is scarier than a 12-year-old with a Kalashnikov.''
-->-- '''Nightcrawler''', ''Comicbook/{{X-Men}}''

They depend on us to defend them, but we're forcing them to defend us. Sometimes they have an actual talent to help them get through the war, which unfortunately may be the reason they were drafted to begin with, but often it's just tough luck. While the notion of [[ChildrenAreInnocent innocent childhood]] is a relatively modern adoption (thank the Victorians and their contemporaries), even the ancients still felt fairly queasy about the idea - and with good reason: warfare screws with kids heads, and they're rarely good for much else afterwards. Since the use of child soldiers forces the enemy to gun down children in self defense, it's a very strong contender for [[MoralEventHorizon the most morally reprehensible war crime in existence]]. On a somewhat lighter side, there are also many stories, in fiction and real life, concerning boys ([[SweetPollyOliver and girls]]) who lied about their ages in order to serve their countries.

This trope is great for an [[DarkAndTroubledPast angsty backstory]] while at the same time excusing ImprobableAge with prior experience. A staple of the shows which focus on violence but broadcast to kids, notably the more serious {{Mecha Show}}s. It's a good way to subvert ChildrenAreInnocent, particularly if a kid [[CreepyChild creepily]] sees it [[NotAGame as a game]], but sometimes the loss of innocence is played for as much drama as can be.

In fiction, this also has the convenience of explaining why [[PersonOfMassDestruction Persons Of Mass Destruction]] are obeying their weaker bosses and not actually running things, or at least not demanding wages and better job conditions. It doesn't occur to them; and even if they do rebel, they don't know how to do it properly.

This trope blends imperceptibly with NewMeat. Since even legal adults can be teenagers, old soldiers in particular may regard them as no more than children. This trope is TruthInTelevision; many armies in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Africa have underaged troops. Furthermore, even Western countries such as Germany, Russia, and the United States have overlooked recruitment ages in major conflicts such as WorldWarII. This was likely to happen before the late 20th century, because births were not as well documented and the recruiters took them at their word if they looked about the right age. Though it's frowned on by Western culture, there is a certain brutal logic to conscripting youth - everyone is under threat, so everyone fights. Sometimes the children are better off on the front lines than enduring [[WarIsHell what would happen to them if the enemy takes their village]]. As a more pragmatic and ethical solution, many countries that feature soldiers in the 16-19 age range often utilize them in noncombat or support roles, and/or continue to train them until they're older, resulting in far better psychological health, effectiveness of personnel, and morale overall.

Some [[SuperSoldier Super Soldiers]] probably started out early enough to be counted as this. The {{Tykebomb}} ([[LaserGuidedTykebomb of all varieties]]) is what happens when this trope backfires.

Compare LittleMissBadass, CreepyChild, CuteBruiser, EnfanteTerrible, KidSamurai, NewMeat, YoungGun, RecruitTeenagersWithAttitude. The ShellShockedSenior may actually be a high-school senior.

Contrast FallingIntoTheCockpit, which usually implies no former military experience. See PluckyMiddie for the naval version. See also RaisedByOrcs for cultures that use ''their enemies'' children this way.

If only children get to be soldiers, then you have a CompetenceZone on your hands. If it's because they're the only ones left, ''then'' you have a TeenageWasteland on your hands.

Very much a TruthInTelevision. This trope is almost always AlwaysMale.

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!!Precociously Talented Type:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
* Sousuke Sagara from ''LightNovel/FullMetalPanic!''. By the start of the series, Sousuke's 16 years old and has been fighting for his whole life, having been raised as a mujaheddin in Afghanistan during the Soviet invasion. This is apparently TruthInTelevision, which is why many child soldiers are from the Middle East in anime. ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundam00 Gundam 00]]'' also uses this and ''BlackLagoon'' made a reference to it.
*** Sagara had actually been a soldier ''before'' that. He was actually sent to kill a guerilla leader at age 8 after being trained as an assassin by the KGB, but failed and joined the arabic leader's troops. He was brought to Russia by Kallinin, [[spoiler: who legally adopted him when he and toddler-Sagara were the only survivors of a plane crash, and introduced him to military life. Kallinin later deserting the KGB also to join sides with Sousuke, further training him in the art of war at still tender ages.]]
** In the novels, it's mentioned that Gauron himself was one of these: he was fighting for the Khmer Rouge by at least age 12, and probably earlier.
** Sousuke's former comrade, Zaied is also an example, and unlike Sousuke, is played horribly straight, having grown up into an EmptyShell SociopathicSoldier, who seems to lack all social contact, drive and ambition. It makes him a dangerous antagonist and EvilCounterpart to Sousuke.
* ''DivergenceEve'' has Kotoko-01, though since she's an android it may or may not count.
* ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}'', even discounting judicious use of FallingIntoTheCockpit, has a lot of this, starting with 16-year-old Amuro Ray.
** The pilots in ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamWing Gundam Wing]]'' were all 15 at the start of the series, but the most extreme case is Trowa, who (according to ''[[AllThereInTheManual Episode Zero]]'') was picked up by mercenaries after spending the first few years of his life completely alone, and thus has been a soldier since before he was able to talk. The show's protagonist Heero has many similarities to Sousuke Sagara (mentioned above) such that many consider Sousuke to be an {{Expy}}.
** Setsuna F. Seiei (pictured fourth from left) in ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundam00 Gundam 00]]'' was brainwashed by and fought for religious extremists in the Middle East some years younger than ten. Being sixteen in the series proper, he's still older than most Gundam teen leads: Usso Eving in ''[[Anime/MobileSuitVictoryGundam Victory Gundam]]'' is the youngest Gundam pilot at 13.
** And for Usso, it speaks of how children are forced to fight. While all teenagers in real life would want to pilot a giant robot and crush all the adults. Imagine if it was a tank, and you don't even got your driving license... real scary thought.
*** Indeed, a Zanscare pilot that Usso downs shoots himself when he sees how old Usso is, because he can't bear to live in a world where children so young are made into soldiers.
** In ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamSeed Gundam SEED]]'' and ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamSeedDestiny Gundam SEED Destiny]]'' the same thing applies with most of the main cast, heroic ''and'' antagonistic being in their teens. Although in this case, most of the child soldiers actually volunteered to fight for their countries; many of them soon realized that they bit off far more than they could chew, though.
*** The Extendeds as well. They even had to go through torture and abuse in their training as children, in order to be molded into soldiers that surpass the Coordinators.
** Most blatant example: ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamZZ Gundam ZZ]]'''s Elpeo Puru. A ten year old Newtype girl trained for combat in a prototype war machine, mentally conditioned to focus on the pilot of the Gundam (this backfired: she focused on him all right, but her obsession became affection and she only wanted to be his little sister). Then it's revealed that they cloned her at least a dozen times and treated the resultant girls as equipment rather than people, nothing more than pilots who were to obey their commander and fight whomever he ordered.
** Decil Galette of ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamAge Gundam AGE]]'' is one of the most [[EnfanteTerrible revoltingly evil]] examples of this ever created, being a seven-year old boy who joined the army because it gave him the chance to kill people. By the Second Generation he's more or less grown up into an {{expy}} of [[Anime/MobileSuitGundam00 Ali Al-Saachez]] and [[Anime/MobileSuitZetaGundam Yazan Gable]], the franchise's two defining [[PsychoForHire Psychos For Hire]].
* The BigBad of ''SpeedGrapher'', Suitengu.
* This is basically the entire concept of ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'', where the main characters, at the start, are twelve years old and already sent into occasionally life-threatening missions. The fact that they ''are'' ninja and they're accompanied by more experienced one helps, a little, but [[ThereAreNoTherapists tough cookies if you watch your family die before you one night, or have to leave your teammate to die.]] The trope is played with rather interestingly, as the series of [[TheMessiah messiah-like characters]] see this trope as a major part of the problem with the whole ninja system in general, which they seek to fundamentally change or end.
** This story without a doubt fits this trope, as Naruto, as of the gradually building climax-arc of the series, is [[spoiler: [[TheChosenOne the savior and prophet]] everyone is relying on to save the day.]] Naruto himself grew into the role of TheMessiah not by destiny or conscious choice, but because of the various events and realities of his live, and the choices he made eventually culminating in a person and reputation that effectively becomes messianic. In a sense, the UpbringingMakesTheHero combines with several wise mentors passing on their full or partially messianic philosophies onto Naruto, who sees the reality of the world around him and puts two and two together.
** Mangaka Masashi Kishimoto is queasy about actually killing off members of his young protagonist set outright (aside from [[DisneyDeath feints]] and [[DeathByFlashback flashbacks]]), but has no such qualms about having enemy shinobi bite the dust. Fair enough... [[FridgeLogic up until you realize]] that all of Orochimaru's non-filler Quirky Miniboss Squads, minus Kabuto, are [[ProtagonistCenteredMorality no older than the junior-high-aged protagonists when they die horribly.]]
** Some characters start even younger, as Kakashi graduated at the age of 5, became a Chunin at 6, and by 13, was a Jonin who would have died on several occasions if not for his teammate Rin's medical ninjutsu.
** Seen in horrific detail in Hashirama's time. See "Just Plain Tragic" entry.
** Also the Chunin Exams. The surface idea is that it promotes friendship and peace between the nations, and allows future clients to see the fighting strength of each village. However, it is revealed that the Exams are essentially a replacement for full-out battle between the nations, with the Genin of the villages as the soldiers, showcasing their village’s political strength.
* ''EurekaSeven'': Eureka, for her prodigious skill in piloting the [[SuperPrototype Nirvash]], becomes its pilot, and Renton, who decides to co-pilot it to protect Eureka. Naturally, reality [[HeroicBSOD hits him hard]] when he figures out that by piloting, he's become a soldier with extreme skill in [[TheseHandsHaveKilled killing]]. The series makes a major plot point of this, exploring what really happens when children [[FallingIntoTheCockpit pilot]] HumongousMecha.
* The armed forces of the Space-Time Administration Bureau from ''MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha'' doesn't seem to have a minimum age requirement. Nanoha, Fate, and Hayate become active members at the age of nine and proceed to sky-rocket through its ranks. Unlike most examples, the child soldiers of the series all join out of their own volition. (However, there's unfortunate implications that this is a BoxedCrook arrangement, as these tend to be the opponents of previous seasons; and anyone ''not'' working for the [=TSAB=] is still in prison or at least confined to a frontier world.) In crossover fanfic it's not unusual for others to find this disconcerting.
** Played more darkly in Runessa Magnus' backstory in ''Audioplay/StrikersSoundStageX''. She fought in wars on her homeworld of Orussia, but was rescued by an NGO after being severely wounded at the age of 9.
** The TSAB looks more like a police/firefighter force. The characters' job is to arrest bad guys, avoiding lethal force as much as possible, and to rescue people from disasters. Definitely a dangerous job, but far less scarring than a "job" where you have to kill or be killed. But even that is darker in SSX, where we're reminded that working in Disaster Relief means that when you fail, you see people die.
* Duel Academy students in ''Anime/YuGiOhGX'' -- what do you expect when your weapon is a children's collectible card game? This doesn't stop their principal from [[AdultsAreUseless feeling terrible about putting the fate of the world in the hands of teenagers]].
* Major Edward Elric from ''Manga/FullmetalAlchemist'' earned his commission in [[TheEmpire Amestris']] State Military at the tender age of twelve.
* Mana Tatsumiya in ''MahouSenseiNegima'' is 14/15 years old, but has been fighting in various trouble spots around the world since her childhood. Her old Pactio card actually shows her, around 10 years old, with [[GunsAkimbo Desert Eagles Akimbo]].
** There's also Nagi, Negi's legendary hero of a father. The big war in the Magic World started when he was only around 13, and in the Magic World, if you're strong enough, you could fight in wars even if you're just 12 or 13. Nagi being...well, [[WorldsStrongestMan invincible]], he ended the war on his own. At age 15.
** The cadets of the esteemed Ariadne Battle Maiden Knight Squad, [[spoiler:which Yue Ayase managed to become a part of]].
** In fact, the entire class (including the teacher!) that wasn't left behind counts, save the [[OurGhostsAreDifferent ghost]] Sayo. Setsuna has been a bodyguard or training in Shinmeiryuu techniques since childhood.
** [[QuirkyMinibossSquad Fate's haremettes]] also can be seen as this.
* In ''StrikeWitches'', all but two of the 501st Joint Fighter Wing's Witches are children, the youngest being only 12 (the two oldest are, appropriately enough, the commander and her second in command). Justified somewhat in that most magic users are teenage girls anyway, and the fact their magic gets weaker the older they get. So by 20 they are decommissioned from service.
* The main cast of ''SkyGirls'' are in their teens, the youngest only 15 years old. This is justified by 90% of the male population between 20 and 30 being dead in due to a war against an alien enemy.
* Mostly averted (both ways) in ''[[Manga/MobileSuitGundamSeedAstray Gundam SEED Astray]]'''s Kazahana Aja. Although she is an official member of the Serpent Tail mercenary group at the tender age of six, she's only the team's civilian liason, and thus is generally a non-combatant (Plus, her mother is part of the group, too). Her report at the end of ''X Astray'' is a bit of a TearJerker, however.
* Played straight and subverted by ''ZettaiKarenChildren'', where the psychic children are used more or less as soldiers, but the organization doing so still treats them like children and tries very hard to provide for a healthy upbringing for them.
* ''{{Gunbuster}}'' has a bunch of high-school kids charged with piloting the HumongousMecha which will defend the Earth. In fact, the early parts play out more like a sports movie as competitors vie to get "on the team".
* The Shinigami in ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' have a few children in their ranks. [[HotLibrarian Ise Nanao]] and [[StepfordSmiler Ichimaru Gin]] joined as children. [[AdorablyPrecociousChild Hitsugaya Toshiro]] is a child in the current timeline, ''and he's the 10th squad captain''.
** [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld But then again]]...
*** Looking by Soul Society standards, he's still considered a child.
** [[CuteBruiser Kusajishi Yachiru]].
* In ''Manga/OnePiece'', during [[AxCrazy Donquixote Doflamingo's]] speech about [[MightMakesRight justice]] during the Marineford Arc, when he gets to his "Children who never knew peace" part, we see a couple of these.
* Yu Ominae from the anime/manga series ''{{Spriggan}}'', was "recruited" (read: kidnapped) into a secret U.S. government black ops unit called COSMOS sometime after his archaeologist parents were killed in Iran. Considering he's no older than 16-17 by present day in the series (he's a high school student), this means he was likely taken around the age of 10.
** COSMOS (Children of Soldier Machine Organic System) was filled out with children kidnapped by the CIA from around the world. They are brainwashed, have their names replaced by a number and given extensive special forces training. To give some perspective as to the results of this training, Yu, after freeing himself from COSMOS' brainwashing, is considered to be one of the deadliest special agents alive in the world of Spriggan. Most of their missions involve classic black ops missions like assassination, artifact retrieval and covert infiltration.
* In the manga ''{{Jormungand}}'', the character Jonah is a child soldier and is a prolific fighter, who has been hired by a arms dealer. Even though he's on par with the other highly trained fighters, he's also mentally fragile and hates weapons and his reliance on them. Needless to say, his personality disturbs the other adult mercenaries.
* At the beginning of ''9 Banme no Masashi'' the titular character is 16 and one of the top elite soldier in her secret paramilitary organization.
* Most of the main cast in KagerouNostalgia, with Kazuma Shudo, a 14-year old, PTSD-ing [[HiredGuns mercenary]] being the straightest example.
* Some, if not all of the ''SpiderRiders'' are ages twelve to thirteen. For pete's sake, Princess Sparkle is only eight!
* In ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'', [[TheAce Mami Tomoe]] reassures two prospective recruits that, though being a magical girl is often dangerous, it is ultimately very rewarding. [[spoiler: She is very, very wrong.]]
* The oldest member of the [[SoraNoWoto 1121st Helvetian Tank Platoon]] is 18 years old. The youngest is 14.
* In DragonballZ, Son Gohan is forced to fight his uncle at age 4, thwart an alien invasion at age 5, fight a war against a galactic overlord a couple months later, endure copious TrainingFromHell, and then fight an insanely powerful monster (who proceeds to beat him to a pulp and kill his father) when, even taking into consideration YearInsideHourOutside training, he was but 11. Yes, he does show some signs of PTSD when he grows up.
** You can't forget Vegeta who was enslaved at age 5 to the same Galactic Overlord who killed his father, destroyed his race, and blew up his planet.
* Downplayed in [[LightNovel/{{DateALive}} Date A Live]]. Due to the fact that the talent to use [[AppliedPhlebotinum the]] [[RealityWarper Realizer]] is very rare, the Anti Spirit Team(AST) has to take child recruits. All the ones seen so far in combat are orphans and generally very good. Their mission is to [[BullyingADragon exterminate the]] [[PersonOfMassDestruction Spirits]], but that turns out to mean "bug them till they leave on their own". Downplayed that everyone heads to shelters when an incomming spirit is detected, the AST can 't really [[NighInvulnerable hurt the Spirits]], and the spirits themselves don't try all that hard to fight back. So all that really happens is property damage most of the time. When they do get a spirit [[TheGlovesComeOff angry enough]] it tends to go poorly for them.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* Really this is what CaptainAmerica's sidekick [[BuckyBarnes Bucky]] was.
* Xavin the Super Skrull in training from ''Comicbook/{{Runaways}}'' thinks of herself like this, but based on the flashbacks to his training on her homeworld it seems like he has never really seen combat and only undergone Super Skrull basic training.
** In the ''Runaways''[=/=]''YoungAvengers'' Comicbook/CivilWar arc, Xavin tells a MadScientist that when he/she was five, he/she was forced to first watch his father slaughter a "screaming family" and then was made to spend three days with the bodies as a punishment for crying during it.
* Hit Girl from ''{{Kick-Ass}}'' is a strange case, because not only is she aware of her status as this, but she's far more capable than the 16 year old title character. [[spoiler: After her father gets killed, Kick-Ass helps her track down her mother, and she goes back to a normal life like nothing bad ever happened.]]
** The first issue of Kickass 2 [[spoiler:shows Hit-Girl continuing to train Kick-Ass, keeping a small army's worth of firepower hidden in her bedroom, and being thoroughly bored with civilian life. So her normal life is probably going to just be a temporary blip.]]
** In [[Film/{{Kick-Ass}} the movie]], [[spoiler: her mother is really dead, so she returns to a normal life - probably devoid of bullies, but that's a detail - with just Dave as a guardian.]]
* {{X-23}} from the Comicbook/{{X-Men}} was artificially created to be a perfect killing machine, this meant learning to kill from birth on and being send on messy assassinations by the age of 12.
** Metaphorically Marrow was also a child soldier. Being forced to kill fellow Morlocks in order to survive and being indoctrinated to hate normal humans for no apparent reason.
* This is the source of CaptainAmerica's opposition to Peter Parker as Spider-man in the [[ComicBook/UltimateSpiderman Ultimate universe]].
** And even moreso with Miles Morales as the new Spider-Man, who is even ''younger''.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Fanfiction]]
* A particularly ridiculous version is the ''Franchise/StarTrek'' fanfiction series about FanFic/MarissaPicard, in which a twelve-year-old is given command of the Enterprise saucer section, and does so well with it that she is permanently promoted to Ensign (not acting, like Wesley Crusher at 16). She starts up a "Kids' Crew" organization that is a shadow government for starships, in which children, none of whom seem to be over 12, can take over the running of a ship if its senior crew are incapacitated. Their ranks are acting, but so long as they're still 'activated' they can tell any properly commissioned officer what to do. Few of the adults over whose heads they jump seem to mind, and those that do quite reasonably resent it are depicted as idiots.
** By way of comparison, in TNG, there was a "cadet crew" made up of some of the teens and older pre-teens, but their activities were realistically limited. The only time they actually did anything "for real" was during an exceptionally severe shipwide emergency where everyone available was needed. Even then, they were limited to doing what they'd actually learned.
* In ''FanFic/{{Exoria}}'', Hylian Joint Intelligence is revealed to have hijacked the Spencer Welfare Program, an initiative designed to raise and educate orphaned children so they can serve the government when then grow up. Joint Intelligence keeps tabs on the program to search for candidates for the intelligence agency, and provide them underage military training covertly. Agent Link became an exceedingly young agent of Joint Intelligence this way. On one hand, Link doesn't seem to be too badly off with this upbringing, but Princess Zelda clearly disapproves, and, given the story's narrative slant, it's too early to tell how this will come back to bite Link in the ass.
* In ''TheMadScientistWars'', Commander Primary Xerox, head of TheMenInBlack-style organization '''M''' is somewhere between the two types. [[spoiler:Up until the age of ten he was trained along with other children to be an assassin, and sent to kill Mad Scientists.]] On one hand, he has amazing reflexes and a great deal of weapon training, but on the other hand [[spoiler: The guilt of his only ''mostly'' repressed memories has haunted his adult life, and he's never really recovered from the emotional stress. And he has the ''body'' of a Jaded Vet to go along with his mentality.]]
* [[DCNation Fauna]] considers the [[ComicBook/TeenTitans Titans]] to be this, [[WhatTheHellHero and hasn't much respect for the JLA (or Doom Patrol) as a result]]. She also finds it very disquieting to see the Titans' children so eager to follow in their parents' footsteps. [[http://community.livejournal.com/jla_watchtower/973271.html She keeps her opinion mostly to herself to avoid offending her teammates, only confessing it to Troia, who tried to justify it]]. It still makes her seriously question the ethics of choosing a caped hero's life.
* Tabitha, as portrayed in the LightNovel/ZeroNoTsukaima fics Fanfic/PointsOfFamiliarity and Fanfic/TheHillOfSwords, is one by dint of her EvilUncle sending her on impossible missions in the hope of getting her killed. She persists in disappointing him.
* Brutally Deconstructed during the ''FanFic/TamersForeverSeries''
-->''"What am I supposed to do now?" Henry whispered. His body let go of itself and Henry fell right next to the immense rookie Digimon.''

-->''"I know what they want me to do…they want me to just jump to the front line and take my friends to battle, as if we were soldiers willing to die for our country. Besides, they think it's so easy…that in the end, Daemon will be defeated, just like D-Reaper and the Nightmare."''

-->''The sound of Henry's fist crashing against the floor covered Jeri's gasp.''

-->''"Of course! If the kids do it, it's because it's easy, right?"''

* Again, this is a major premise of Naruto, so it naturally comes up in the Naruto/Justice League Crossover [[FanFic/ConnectingTheDots "Connecting the Dots"]]. The principled Justice League is horrified to discover there is a whole dimension of child assassins, even though Flash points out that the League employs plenty of teenagers.
* [[http://www.mediaminer.org/fanfic/view_st.php?id=112882&submit=View Digimon Clone Wars]] introduces the Red Ribbon Army (not to be mistaken with the one form Dragon Ball), a terror organization lead by Davis, who consists entirely out of the cloned children of the other Digidestineds. Taken [[UpToEleven up to eleven]] by the fact, that some of those children are not even two years old. The sad thing is, the author actually thinks Davis is a good guy, despite that and expects us, [[RootingForTheEmpire to root for him.]]
* The Cutie Mark Crusaders officially become ones in chapter 16 of ''[[{{Fanfic/AceCombatEquestriaChronicles}} Ace Combat: The Equestrian War]]''. To their credit, they actually ''want'' to fight the griffins and they helped in defending Ponyville ealier.
* [[FanFic/TheServantsOfUngoliant Darklanders]] that serve as Ungoliant's soldiers are inclined to be teenagers and young adults. Individuals older than twenty-six are relatively uncommon.
* ''FanFic/{{Hivefled}}'': The Sufferist cult is mostly made up of children, with most of the few conscription-skipping adults being disabled. All 250 of them attack the Alternian fleet [[spoiler:and get massacred]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Film]]
* ''Die Brücke'' (The Bridge), a German film of 1959 about seven German schoolchildren in 1945 who are levied to defend a hometown bridge. [[spoiler:Against American tank corps. All but one get killed. The story was based on an actual event, upon the personal report of a surviving veteran who in his own youth experienced a similar situation in World War II.]]
* It was the plot of ''Film/{{Toys}}''. [[spoiler:What else was Leland going to do with the kids?]]
* Implied a bit in ''Film/{{Transformers}}''. Between mannerisms and personality, Bumblebee seems to be in the Cybertronian analogue of his mid-teens, and the Twins give the distinct impression of being the equivalent of twelve. They are probably older than most human civilizations, but they're young for their species.
* The Clone Troopers of ''StarWars'' are considered combat ready at age ten. Their accelerated aging means they appear twenty, and they've been trained since birth.
** You also have the Jedi. Who are sent out into the field at fourteen or younger, and look fourteen or younger, to chop people's arms off with unstoppable laser swords.
* The movie ''Blood Diamond'' depicts child soldiers in a real-life conflict.
* The leader of the drug dealers from ''TropicThunder'' is twelve years old.
** Actually, in his case, he's not just a Child Soldier, but a Child Boss.
* The film adaptation of ''[[ChroniclesOfNarnia Voyage Of The Dawn Treader]]'' starts out with a teenage Edmund lying about his age to try and enlist to fight in WorldWarII. Unfortunately, the recruiting officer can tell he's underage and turns him down. Apparently, Edmund's tried multiple times and is becoming increasingly frustrated.
* The Italian-produced WorldWarII film ''Hornets' Nest'' involves a group of Italian children taking up arms against the Nazis after their parents are massacred by the SS. A little on the unrealistic side, with untrained kids mowing down countless Nazis left and right, it can't quite seem to decide if it wants to show war as an adventure or as a grim reality with tragic psychological tolls that come with children becoming killers, and its efforts to have it both ways leave it feeling a bit disjointed.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live Action TV]]
* ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica Classic}}'' (Original): "The Young Lords".
--> ''At the bridge the youngest daughter--drops [[NicknamingTheEnemy tin cans]] into the water''
* ''{{Frasier}}'': Frasier and Niles' Greek aunt Zora.
-->'''Niles:''' Have you forgotten that when Hitler invaded Greece, she joined the partisans so she could strangle Nazis?
-->'''Frasier:''' I have never believed that. She would have been five at the time.
-->'''Niles:''' That's why the legend says they were strangled with jump ropes.
* ''Series/PowerRangersTurbo'': Justin Stewart, the Blue Ranger.
* ''Series/{{Revolution}}'': {{Mooks}} employed by the Monroe Militia start out as such, being forcibly conscripted from their homes and families.
* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'':
** Nog is a sci-fi version of Plucky Middie.
** The Jem'hadar are a race engineered to fight for the Dominion, and to grow to adult size very rapidly. One seasoned veteran spoke with pride of how he'd attained the ripe old age of eight. Being 20 means you're an Honored Elder.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* Edilio trains them in ''Literature/{{Gone}}''.
* The kid from the ''EndersGame'' series. And, to an only slightly lesser extent, the majority of characters in that series (or at least the first book).
* Many characters in Fiona Patton's TalesOfTheBranionRealm, justified by the medieval setting. Crosses over with EnfanteTerrible in some cases.
* King Matt and friends from Janush Korczak's "King Matt the First" where the pre-teen king also institutes a children's parliament. It ends in a complete, brutally realistic ruin for his country.
* The titular witches in the short story "Witches War" by Matheson. Young girls with magical powers being used as weapons in a WW setting. And it's very disturbing.
* ''{{Narnia}}'': Peter and Edmund in the first two books (and Susan in the films); Jill and Eustace in ''The Last Battle''.
* ''TheWarAgainstTheChtorr''. With most of the world population killed off by alien plagues, anyone old enough to fight the alien invaders is conscripted into the military.
* In ''Century Rain'' by AlastairReynolds, one of the two major human factions in the setting, the Polity, used genetically engineered, nanotechnology enhanced child-soldiers against the other major faction, the United States of Near Earth, in a war some time before the beginning of the novel. They later show up in the course of the novel, as part of a rogue Polity group which is attempting to destroy the book's MacGuffin. They are described as being particularly hard to fight because of human instincts and their own extreme skill and small size.
* Massively subverted in JohnScalzi's ''Literature/OldMansWar'' series - While normally only Earth's elderly are recruited into the Colonial Defence Forces (their bodies get replaced), Special Forces soldiers are created from the DNA of recruits who die before they can be transferred to a new body. As a result they are fully mature adults who are emotionally and socially retarded, which helps them perform their jobs. In ''The Ghost Brigades'' one SF soldier notes that a dead child they encounter on a wildcat colony is twice as old as two of them put together, leading him to conclude that "it's a fucked up universe".
* In Creator/RobertAHeinlein's ''Literature/SpaceCadet'' the Commander of the Academy talks briefly of taking these young men and changing them forever. Even those who eventually drop out will find civilian life foreign to them. Robert A. Heinlein graduated from the US Naval Academy at Annapolis at the age of 22. He may know what he's talking about.
* In the ''Literature/SeafortSaga'' the radiation associated with FTL travel means you must join the Navy as a child so your body acclimatises to it as you grow up otherwise you risk cancer. The protagonist finds himself commanding a ship starting at the age of 17 for several years. Later he is Commander of the Naval Academy and must send the academy cadets on suicide missions to defend Earth.
* In the short story by HarryHarrison, ''[[RobotWar War With The Robots]]'', the command staff are all teenagers as anyone older lacks the reflexes and flexibility of mind needed to fight the war. They retire after four or five years.
* In ''[[Literature/LegacyOfTheAldenata Yellow Eyes]]'', Panama is forced to recruit children as soldiers to defend itself from the Posleen. It avoids becoming a MoralEventHorizon because it is clearly portrayed as a desperation move against the Posleen, [[HordeOfAlienLocusts who would have killed and eaten the children anyway if they weren't stopped]]. Also, the children are rarely used as front-line soldiers, instead they are used primarily for supply and logistics work in order to free up adults to fight in the front lines.
* Most of {{Redwall}}'s main heroes are the rodentine equivalent of about twelve to fifteen years old.
* The Literature/HonorHarrington novels have an inversion of sorts, where due to the effects of Prolong (a lifespan-increasing treatment), freshly graduated soldiers will often still look like [[strike: preteens]] young teenagers - but are actually in their thirties or forties. This produces some dissonance when they meet societies that haven't had access to the treatment.
* TheTomorrowSeries is about a group of teens (exact age not specified, though they're still in school) who inadvertently become guerilla soldiers when their country (Australia) is invaded while they're out camping.
* The whole ''Literature/HarryPotter'' series is about kids getting caught up in their elders' war and recruited/forced to fight in it in various capacities. This is an instance of "Precociously Talented Type" and "Just Plain Tragic Type" combined.
* Ditto for the PercyJackson series. Neither side thinks twice about recruiting and training to fight demigods as young as ten years old. Percy himself fights his first battles at age twelve, Annabeth is only seven.
* ''BitterSeeds'' has a team of Nazi child psychic soldiers.
* The entire main cast of ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}''.
* David Westheimer's alternate history novel about a 1945 invasion of Japan features a Japanese schoolteacher leading his his malnourished class against American tanks. Tragically, it's impled that the teacher is so fanatical that he ignores his charges' youthful status; at one point the night before the attack, he hears children sobbing and debates whether or not to order his 'troops' to look for them. When they do rush the American tanks with inadequate satchel charges, the US tankers are briefly surprised, thinking they are being attacked by midgets, then open fire and kill them all.
* Rana Sanga's son Rajiv in the ''Literature/BelisariusSeries'' was being groomed to be a quite formidable WarriorPrince while still a teenager. However his father certainly intended that he be allowed to grow up before seeing actual combat and he only participates in war in the series because of an attempt to murder his family while his father is away on campaign.
* In ''Literature/WhoFearsDeath'' this is part of Mwita's background.
* A subversion is found in the Creator/PhilipKDick novel ''The Counter-Clock World'' where aging reversed decades ago, and there's a commando squad of elderly soldiers who are now the size of small children and infants.
* In ''Literature/ABrothersPrice'', the Whistler family's grandmothers were all soldiers-turned-thieves-turned-spies, and they passed a great deal on to their descendents. When a shot rings out near the house while their mothers and older and middle sisters are out, leaving no one older than twelve save for a brother, they get themselves inside, younger siblings and boy first, older ones "doing a slower rear guard, scanning over their shoulders for lost siblings or strangers." The twelve-year-old girl goes with her soldier training to give orders, and little girls work in teams to load rifles and guard the windows. However, they never actually have to see action - a captain advises her princesss to keep back, she doesn't want to have to execute an eight-year-old for shooting her - and said princess is later horrified at the thought of the little girls riding out with her after some smugglers. They want to come, but their elder sisters won't let them.
* In ''Literature/StoneKing'', youths as young as twelve are conscripted into the Japan Self-Defense Force's Titan Corps.
* As part of the BattleTechExpandedUniverse, seveal novels mention child mechwarriors: Several 15-16 year olds in the second ''Grey Death'' mercenary's novel are piloting mechs; Later Draconis Combine hero Shin Yodama is mentioned as carrying demolition charges through culverts at the age of 14.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* The citizens of the planet Cadia in ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' are trained from birth for combat, mainly because their planet is parked riameght outside a NegativeSpaceWedgie that leads straight to hell, and frequently spews forth the LegionsOfHell. The birth rate and recruitment rate is the same thing. Their soldiers enter combat as part of the youth army, the "Whiteshields," at age 13. They only get promoted to the full army by earning a medal. And they are ''badass''. A common saying is that any Cadian who can't field-strip his own lasgun by the age of ten was born on the wrong planet.
** Similarly, Catachans. Their homeworld is basically "if Australia was a jungle" in terms of EverythingTryingToKillYou, and half the children don't even make it to adulthood. [[{{Badass}} Those who do?]] The Catachan Devils are armies made entirely of {{Rambo}es if they'd been cast in {{Predator}}.
** {{Space Marine}}s, due to the requirements of their [[AppliedPhlebotinum implants]], are inducted into the chapter at around the onset of puberty, and the [[TheSpartanWay entry requirements]] make sure they must be well-versed in the act of war before they're even considered. Their transformation into full-fledged Space Marines isn't complete by the time they're seeing battle as part of the chapter's Scout Company.
*** As in so many other things, SpaceWolves are the exception. They take in valorous young men on the brink of death, usually in their twenties (leading the population of their planet Fenris to see their order as a WarriorHeaven in itself, but that is neither here nor there). Although we're never given figures on the success rate, the [[HonorBeforeReason wisdom]] of this is uncertain; when Leman Russ was found by the Emperor, his [[BandOfBrothers associates]] all volunteered to become Space Marines, and over half died from implant rejection. On the other hand, few of them were young in any way, and several were downright [[BadassGrandpa elderly]].
* The premise of BlissStage is that the only people left who can fight the AlienInvasion are teenagers.
* A number of races in WarhammerFantasy do this as well. Dark Elves begin training the moment they are strong enough to pick up a sword or spear. All Bretonian knights start off as a Knight Errant. Once the young knights have proven their worth in the field of battle, they are knighted and receive a small plot of land to rule.
* In the D20Modern Sourcebook D20 Apocalypse, kids as young as 12 can be adventurers (explorers, scavengers, and other people who constantly brave the post apocalypse world). While they are not soldiers, given how hostile the post apocalypse world is, they might as well be. And the minimum age for law enforcement (vigilante, town militia...) is 15. {{Justified|Trope}} by the post apocalyptic setting, where people have to learn fast or die at the hand of raiders/mutated monsters/other.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* Latooni, Seolla, Arado, and Princess Shine from ''SuperRobotWars''. The first three are {{Tykebomb}}s, while the fourth is a [[EverythingsBetterWithPrincesses princess]] who isn't ''technically'' enlisted, and is simply allowed to fight alongside the other heroes to protect her [[TheKingdom Kingdom]].
** Also, Mihiro Ardygun in ''SuperRobotWarsW'', who co-pilots the Valhawk with her older brother (himself 16) at the age of 10. [[spoiler:During the TimeSkip, while her brother was missing, she took over piloting duties full-time.]] Though not a soldier ''officially'', she does fight on behalf of a government organization that does include several soldiers, including the aforementioned child soldiers from ''[[Anime/MobileSuitGundamWing Gundam Wing]]'' and ''Lightnovel/FullMetalPanic''.
* [[{{Halo}} Master Chief]] and his fellow [[SuperSoldier Spartans]] started their [[TheSpartanWay grueling military training]] at age six, and have been kicking [[ScaryDogmaticAliens Covenant]] rear since they were fourteen. Their skills and reputation are such that the Covenant calls them "demons."
** ''Ghosts of Onyx'' goes even further, with the SPARTAN III program, which turned children into ''suicide'' super soldiers who went off to fight and die at the age of ''twelve''.
* 14-year-old Leo Stenbuck [[FallingIntoTheCockpit fell into the cockpit]] of Jehuty in ''VideoGame/ZoneOfTheEnders'', but continued to fight of his own free will as a part of the military afterwards, and is only 16 in the sequel.
* What's a young girl in a pretty white dress doing as one of the top three generals in ''VideoGame/ChronoCross''? At least you can say the other kids making up the party weren't inducted into the army, what with growing up in the streets as a thief, swinging an oar, fishing, or being abandoned in the woods at 3 with only an axe and [[CuteBruiser the highest strength score in the game]] to survive.
* Some of the backstory for the ''VideoGame/{{Crusader}}'' games indicates the Silencer Corps (of whom the main character was a member) prospects are identified through mandatory testing on adolescents. It's also hinted that it's no so much physical prowess they're looking for as it is psychological suitability...
* In ''VideoGame/ValkyriaChronicles'', Gallia has a policy of Universal Conscription, so military training is a part of general education and citizens as young as fifteen may be called up to serve. Moreover, the militia is known to have soldiers as young as ''twelve'', although the girl in question enlisted voluntarily and required special permission to do so.
** Even worse, the little girl is a ''shocktrooper'', the most durable ''and'' most damaging troop type in the game.
* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'', while not exactly soldiers the children who live in little lamplight are all well armed little nutjobs. You can even sell them guns, ammo, and drugs. And thermonuclear devices.
* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'', no one in the game seems to consider the idea of a fourteen year old Cloud Strife joining the Shinra Army unusual (Zack Fair also joined in a similarly young age). And then there's people like Sephiroth, Shelke, and Cissne who started their fighting careers as mere children, although not through any choice of their own.
* The [=SeeD=] in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII'' functions as a highly regarded military academy type institution and many students enter voluntarily. Students typically aren't taught in combat until their teens, and don't see actual combat outside of the training room until their graduation. Upon graduation, the SEED sometimes also work side jobs in policing duties and receive a regular salary.
** Also the underlying function of the [=SeeD=] is to [[spoiler: be prepared to defend the world against [[BigBad an imprisoned evil sorcerer]]]]
** However see the below category to see the flip side of this.
* ''FireEmblem'' has a few child characters, mostly [[StreetUrchin thieves]], Mages in training (and a few full fledged mages) and exiled royalty, but [[VideoGame/FireEmblemTellius Rolf and Mist]] are put on the battlefield as an archer and a healer, respectively, despite being very young.
* Ikari Warriors member Whip from ''VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters'' is only 16.
** She was also a TykeBomb, seperated from her brother [[spoiler:K]]. Heidern really enjoys recruiting young girls for some reason.
* Grunt from ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' is a tank born krogan who is and acts like a child... by krogan standards. His major issue is that he is not only clanless but his "father" was hated by many krogan. In his case he's technically only a few days/weeks old in ''Mass Effect 2'', but has the body of a krogan in late adolescence and had memories and knowledge downloaded into his brain.
** Quarians in the MassEffect universe are frequently involved in combat before and during their Pilgrimage (their rite of passage into adulthood).
** Thane mentions training as an assassin since the age of six, with his first kill taking place when he was ''twelve''
* Ayame from {{Tenchu}} counts, as she's only 14 during the events of Tenchu 2
* Spirits are raised from birth to be soldiers in EienNoAselia. Birth doesn't appear to start at infancy for them, however.
* The ''Franchise/MetalGear'' franchise has Frank Jaeger [[spoiler: a.k.a. Null a.k.a. Gray Fox a.k.a. the Cyborg Ninja.]] Although his exact age is unknown, he fought in the Mozambican War of Independence around the age of 7 or so. Armed only with a knife, he got his name by his method of killing: he deceived the enemy with "the frankness of a young boy" and moved in for the close kill. He was known as the 'Frank Hunter,' which became 'Frank Jaeger' because he could speak a little German. During the events of Portable Ops, his chronologically first appearance, Frank [[spoiler:was still only a teenager when subjected to sensory deprivation treatment in order to make him the emotionless 'Perfect Soldier,' Null.]]
** And we have Raiden who became a child soldier in the Liberian Civil War thanks to Solidus, recieving the nicknames of "White Devil" and "Jack the Ripper". Having a combat rifle at age six, he became captain of a unit of child soldiers ("the Small Boy Unit") at age ten. Similarly, Solidus himself was also heavily implied to be in his teens when he participated in the war.
** ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'', the novelization, the Official Missions Handbook, and ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPeaceWalker'' also heavily imply that Solid and Liquid Snake were raised within the military from a very young age, at least since two years of age, in fact.
* In the original FreedomForce, both Liberty Lad and Sea Urchin are ChildSoldiers themselves. There's a scene in which Man O' War feels uneasy about "putting the wee ones on the front line".
* Zig-Zagged in ''VideoGame/TalesOfTheAbyss''. We have Tear who was trained by Legretta and was given military-grade training from a young age. It shows, but she has a sensitive side too. (And an urge to act like a young girl like thinking it'd be so fun to be hugged by Anise's giant plush animal.) We also have Sync who is only fourteen years old, is a candidate for ThatOneBoss, and falls into the dramatic side given his backstory. One of Sync's comrades, Arietta, also falls into the AlasPoorVillain types, since she can't be any older than 16 yet was trusted by the Daathic Government to act as a bodyguard for Sync. Her successor, Anise, is only ''thirteen'', is [[spoiler:blackmailed into being TheMole because of her parents being hugely in debt]], and clearly had to grow up fast a bit. Oh, and the other god general who's underage by our standards? Asch the Bloody who is 17...and had clearly been in the Daathic Army for ''years'' beforehand. Luke also marches into battle when he's only 17 as well, but consider that [[spoiler:He's actually much ''much'' younger than that!]]
* ''TalesOfSymphoniaDawnOfTheNewWorld'' also gives us Alice, one of the main antagonists who's part of a terrorist organization and is ''clearly'' underage. Marta, too, who is only 15 years old.
* ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'' has no real restrictions on membership beyond the ability to kick enormous amounts of ass, so you can have children fighting amongst adult archangels, insane wizard Yordles, and people who've been in the military for years.
** Annie, who is ''6 years old'' and fights clutching her teddy bear in one hand... and occasionally turning it into an flaming giant to destroy her enemies
** Nunu, a boy whose strong magical abilities are enhanced physically by riding into battle on the back of a [[ABoyAndHisX Yeti]].
** Amumu, an amnesiac [[UndeadChild child]] {{Mummy}}.
** [[LightTheWay Lux]], older than the rest, but still a magically gifted child forcibly conscripted at 13 years old.
** Kog'Maw, who's still an infant, but because he's an infant EldritchAbomination who destroys everything in his path, no one minds.
** While she's grown up now, Riven's backstory indicates that she was a fanatical child soldier for Noxus.
[[/folder]]


[[folder:Web Comics]]
* The title character in ''{{Terinu}}'' was raised by SpacePirate Mavra Chan to be an assassin, starting at the tender age of nine. His best friend Matt was sold ''by his own father'' to Chan to serve as a cook's mate on the same ship at the age of eleven. It's a sufficiently CrapsackWorld that in Matt's case this was distinct improvement over his previous situation.
* Karcharoth of CryHavoc was conscripted at the age of six, and has been fighting in one army or another for fifteen years. Understandably he has a rather distorted view of life. He was recruited due to his minor, but growing, psychic powers.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* [[ProudWarriorRace Sirene]] from the [[PlayByPostGames forum RP]] ''OpenBlue'' is a highly militarised country that drafts children as young as 12 for a four-year service, with the exception of children qualified for technical schooling instead. Not even royals are exempt.
* Zero Takaichi of {{Tasakeru}} joined with the Militia and became a samurai at age 13, as is the custom for males of his species.
* The youngest ProtectorsOfThePlotContinuum are about thirteen years old when they start in the field. The youngest agent ever, Ella Darcy, was ''ten'' when she joined, but she wasn't a field agent.
* Done with a complete lack of angst in ''Literature/MagicalGirlHunters''. The protagonists stop to comment a few times on how horrible it is for children to be taught to fight at an early age. [[BlackComedy Usually right before putting a bullet between their eyes]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* Occasionally implied in the {{Transformers}} metaseries with the younger-minded characters. Done outright in ''TransformersAnimated'' with Sari [[spoiler: especially after she turns out to be a RobotGirl]] and is pushed into the front lines in season 3.
** The episode "Human Error" [[spoiler: (where the main 'bots are shown in analogous human bodies)]] shows that Bumblebee is the Cybertronian equivalent of [[ToyShip roughly her age]].
** [[spoiler: Omega Supreme]] might also count, given that he was specifically created to be a superweapon and purposefully made mentally 'slow' so that he wouldn't question orders. Not a child, but close to a child's mind.
*** The Transformers in Animated have an explicit childhood stage. He was a child soldier with mild mental retardation, and the actions of his creators made it clear that they knew what this would do to him, and how wrong their actions were.
** ''WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime'''s version of Bumblebee may also be considered this. The [[AllThereInTheManual prequel novels]] state outright that he was among the final generation of Cybertronians to be born, and while fighting on the front lines is not given any explicit significance for him, the episode "Masters and Students" hints that he's not officially recognized as warrior-class due to being too young.
* Jedi Padawans such as Ahsoka Tano of ''[[TheCloneWars Star Wars: The Clone Wars]]'' could very much be considered this. Ahsoka is only fourteen or fifteen and yet leads troops into battle and gets into the thick of the fighting herself. Their talent with the force and training from childhood makes even the Padawans very deadly warriors.
** When Kamino comes under attack, the clone cadets take up arms to defend their home. Thanks to their accelerated growth, they're about as half as young as they look.
* ''WesternAnimation/CodenameKidsNextDoor''.
** It gets better. The KND are a global organisation with, amongst other things: A [[SpaceBase Moonbase]], [[KillSat orbital cannons]], [[StandardSciFiFleet spaceships]], [[AwesomePersonnelCarrier military]] [[TankGoodness vehicles]], HumongousMecha, [[FrickinLaserBeams lasers]], ''[[AirborneAircraftCarrier a giant flying convention center]]'' and huge "hidden" bases that recruit kids at around 5-7 years old, train them and kick them out when their thirteen, [[LaserGuidedAmnesia wiping their memory just in case they go rogue]]. They are an ''army'' of child soldiers. The only reason this isn't presented as horrifying at all is because they are every bit as childish as non-members (if not more). Executing a huge, global operation to fill in the ''Grand Canyon'' as a giant cereal bowl, anyone?
* The plot of ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender''? A group of teenagers take down the [[TheEmpire Fire Nation]] army.
** In the societies and time periods which the Four Nations are based off of, it's worth mentioning that at least a few members of the Gaang would be considered adults. Fourteen year old Katara, had she grown up in the Northern Water Tribe for example, would have been old enough to be married. In an arranged marriage no less.
* Episode 8 of ''{{Sym-Bionic Titan}}'' had The Academy on Galaluna, a military training facility which starts training future soldiers as children. To be fair, however, it is partially Truth In Television: most of them are teenagers, and military schools do exist for such ages. However, they also showed a row of children who looked even shorter, and, presumably, younger than Lance and Arthur — who were already small and really young-looking to begin with.
* In the original ''{{Thundercats}}'', the thunderkittens are apparently about twelve, or their species' equivalent, but they go into combat just as much as the adults. Lion-O is a borderline case, since he begins the series physically adult, but mentally a child.
* This gets {{lampshaded}} in ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'', where the team is the black ops for the Justice League, where the oldest of them is 16 and the youngest is 13. An exasperated Mr. Twister brings this up after he [[CurbStompBattle curb stomps]] them when Robin protests that they aren't children.
--> "Objectively, you are. Have you no adult supervision? I find your presence here quite disturbing."
** Later discussed in the episode "Agendas". With the League discovering that [[spoiler: [[{{Shazam}} Captain Marvel]] is only ten]], they begin debating whether to boot him out of the Justice League. Batman says he knew all along, and it has no impact.
--> '''WonderWoman''': I shouldn't be surprised, since you indoctrinated Robin into crime-fighting at the ripe old age of nine.
--> '''Batman''': Robin ''needed'' to help bring the man who murdered his family to justice.
--> '''WonderWoman''': So he could turn out like you?
--> '''Batman''': So that he wouldn't.
* Similar to above, the ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans''. In the comics most of them eventually grow up quickly enough to avert this for most people, but the main gang in the cartoons doesn't. They almost die on several occasions, have no adult supervision, and the youngest is between the ages of fourteen and sixteen.
* [[BadassNormal Caleb]] in WesternAnimation/{{WITCH}} is the leader of the rebellion at 15 years old.
** W.I.T.C.H. themselves, with Will celebrating her thirteenth birthday in an early episode and Hay Lin being the youngest at twelve (presumably). It probably helps they get ElementalPowers as well as an OlderAlterEgo when they transform. Will's boyfriend Matt begins to train as a a warrior in season two, though this is his choice and Will is not happy about it. Some of Caleb's troops in season one look even younger than him, but they're still effective in ambushes and combat.
* Dutch's younger brother Dar in {{WesternAnimation/Motorcity}}, who works for Kane Co. He looks up to and respects Abraham Kane. [[spoiler: He pretty goes through the same experience Mike did in "Vendetta"]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Real Life]]
* Calvin Graham, one of the many underage enlistees who served in WorldWarII and became a bit of a celebrity figure in his time (And underage enlistees were often made to run extra miles and lug extra loads in the TrainingFromHell.) Unfortunately, due to the US government policy he was not able to get veteran benfefits. Despite that, his ship, the ''South Dakota'', was one of the most feared ships in the Pacific Front.
[[/folder]]

!!Just Plain Tragic Type

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
* NowAndThenHereAndThere deals with this trope in an almost unwatchably brutal manner.
* The various groups employing Contractors in ''DarkerThanBlack'' don't really care much about issues like "age." As such, kids who manifest powers tend to be [[TheCorpsIsMother grabbed up immediately]], {{Unperson}}ed, and trained as assassins or other special agents. Additionally, Hei [[spoiler:was a BadassNormal one; he fought in Heaven's War to protect his Contractor little sister]], and one flashback makes it clear he wasn't more than about 16 when he first got involved.
** Through this is somehow justified by the fact that they [[LackOfEmpathy lose their emotions]] and [[TheSociopath their sense of guilt.]] Even the youngest Contractors seem to become {{Creepy Child}}ren at best and sociopathic cold-blooded murderers at worst.
* The titular girls from ''GunslingerGirl'' get rescued from death and [[HollywoodCyborg cybernetically enhanced]] at a very young age. They then are brainwashed into working for an Italian government organization to fight terrorism--generally by [[SmallGirlBigGun using very big guns]]. The brainwashing of child soldiers is the whole point of ''GunslingerGirl''.
** Then there's Pinocchio, whose father trained him to become an assassin at a young age.
* The children of ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' are early on said to have a CompetenceZone of 14, but it seems instead to be a similar result from the AppliedPhlebotinum. Milked for all the drama it can give.
** Milked not just for drama, but also for {{Deconstruction}}: Evangelion deconstructs KidHero as this trope.
* Guts from ''{{Berserk}}'' was trained as a mercenary by his adoptive father when he was just a little boy and had to participate in his share of horrific violence as a result. One of the most horrible things to happen to him back then was being sold by the adoptive father as a sex slave to a pederast soldier for three silver coins.
* ''{{Bokurano}}'' has a group of 12-13-year olds (the first episode states they've just finished grade school) protecting the whole world from being destroyed. Even if they ''were'' completely well-adjusted to begin with ([[DysfunctionJunction and they're]] ''[[DysfunctionJunction not]]'' -- [[AuthorAppeal this is a Mohiro Kitoh work]]) the circumstances of the 'game' they've found themselves in makes their tenure as 'defenders of earth' more tragic than most other examples on this page combined.
* Runessa of ''MagicalGirlLyricalNanoha''. As mentioned in ''Audioplay/StrikerSSoundStageX'', unlike the other characters, she was born in a world where war was a part of her everyday life, and for as long as she can remember, she had always carried a gun.
* Chise from ''{{Saikano}}''. In high school (or was it Junior High?) but being forced to be in the military and going as far as [[spoiler: turning into a machine with a BerserkButton that is automatically triggered by battle]].
* Kirika and Chloe from ''Anime/{{Noir}}'', and to a lesser extent Mireille, actually belong to both types. Kirika was an active assassin from the time she was ''[[spoiler:[[TykeBomb five]]]]''.
* [[Anime/MobileSuitGundam00 Setsuna F. Seiei]] (mentioned above) also falls into this category. He was forced to watch his fellow child soldiers die and [[spoiler: killed his parents at the bidding of his group's leader.]] Years later, he still dreams about dodging bullets and wishes he could go back in time and save his younger self.
* Kazuma Shudo of ''{{Kagerou-Nostalgia}}'' is a teenage mercenary who's been in the business ever since demons killed his sister and his dreams of being a KidSamurai. He's broken, burned out and sufferring from severe [[ShellShockedSenior shellshock]]. One could argue that Child {{Ninja}} Fuwa, [[TheHunter demon-hunting]] [[BadassPreacher initiate]] Shiranui, and {{Tykebomb}} Goki are also this.
* During the Warring Clan's Era of ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'', the life expectancy of shinobi was 30 years, primarily due to the high death rate of their children. Children as young as seven or even younger were deemed shinobi and sent into battle. There they were often [[NightmareFuel ganged up on]] by adults and ruthlessly slaughtered even if they were crying in fear. Oh...and things like AdultFear didn't exist during that time since the killing of children in battle had ''become a norm''.
* Although they aren't forced to enter, the minimum age requirement for the army in ''ShingekiNoKyojin'' is ''twelve''. Why? Because it has an appallingly high mortality rate.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]
* In ''[[JusticeSocietyOfAmerica The Last Days of the Justice Society]]'', TheFlash is shot and killed by a child soldier during the fall of Berlin.
* Mariane Satrapi's ''{{Persepolis}}'' featured a portrayal of the real life Iranian unit of children, who were walked into the minefields to detonate them ahead of the troops.
* The Vertigo reboot of UnknownSoldier is set in Acholiland, the base of operations of the Lord's Resistance Army, one of the most infamous RealLife users of child soldiers. Therefore, they're all over the place.
* When the ComicBook/{{X-Men}} were up against Storm's uncle, a ruthless African dictator, he had a whole unit of child soldiers, trained to be extremely sadistic. Storm had no choice but to kill a squad before they could to the same to her.
** While not as explicit, ComicBook/{{Cyclops}} is an example of a child soldier grown-up. Traumatized as a child (kidnapped father, orphaned with his brother), trained in military tactics from age 14, and sent on paramilitary actions until he was a full adult. Recent X-Men author Kieron Gillen even [[http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/11/03/kieron-gillen-uncanny-xmen-interview/ cited]] this trope as his central motivation for the character.
* Batwing, "the Batman of Africa," has a back story where he was forced into service as a child soldier in the Democratic Republic of Congo. His parents also died of AIDS, completing [[SarcasmMode a truly African backstory]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Fanfiction]]
* As Evangelion fics, ''FanFic/AeonNatumEngel'' and ''FanFic/AeonEntelechyEvangelion'' both fall under this. Since they are based in the ''CthulhuTech'' setting and written by Tropers/EarthScorpion, it gets lampshaded a lot and criticized by the proper military of NEG. Played differently with Asuka, who is irritated that many things that she thinks will improve her piloting are restricted from her because of her age (like cybernization).
* [[Fanfic/DumbledoresArmyAndTheYearOfDarkness Dumbledore's Army.]] At least half of the members die horribly, and a good amount are crippled or killed in the sequel. However, the fic tends to glorify the hardened child soldiers in comparison to Harry, who hasn't embraced the military mindset.
** What's more, it gets taken to utterly ludicrous levels. Somehow, they manage to form a complete mock-military structure despite being from a culture with ''no'' armed forces, develop a martyrdom mindset that in real life requires indoctrination from toddlerhood, and in general make an absolute mockery out of the subject. And the injuries they suffer are only terrible because the author's forgotten the Harry Potter universe has extremely powerful magical healing.
* The ''Series/{{Firefly}}'' fanfic ''Fanfic/{{Forward}}'' has a reveal later on that some of [[SchoolForScheming the Academy's]] test subjects are pre-teens. It is implied that one of them managed to kill several security guards when a training exercise went out of control.
* The Franchise/{{Pokemon}} fanfic ''[[Fanfic/PokeWars Dawn of a New Era]]'' features the eponymous Pokémon coordinator as a badass but broken warrior.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Film]]
* ''BloodDiamond'' shows the kidnapping and indoctrination of the son of one of the main characters. Includes the real-life practice of giving kids amphetamines to kill any feeling of fear or guilt -- and killing their relatives so they can't go back. Also features children killing children with AK-47s.
* The protagonists in ''WarWitch'' are these.
* Glimpsed in ''The Two Towers'' in ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings''.
** Specifically, there is a scene where the soldiers suit up to defend Helm's Deep and we see a number of people being armed are ''very'' young boys needed to up their soldier count. Mercifully, we're never shown the kids doing any actually combat besides throwing stones at the besiegers from the wall.
*** Which is not to say that they aren't implied to having fought, we just don't see them die either. Judging by the heavy casualties suffered by the defenders, it is safe to say that most of these children will have been cut down by the Uruk-Hai.
**** At least some of the boys can later be seen in the background of the post-victory banquet scene.
* ''Film/{{Downfall}}'' features a girl of about 12 'manning' an 88mm gun at the Battle of Berlin. When everything appears hopeless, her not-much-older comrade shoots her at her own request, then kills himself.
* Pure Ones in ''[[LegendOfTheGuardiansTheOwlsOfGaHoole Legend of the Guardians]]''. First off, they take owlets from their nests and train them to fight the Guardians of Ga'Hoole, who are damn near unstoppable. As if the "Pickers" being moonblinked wasn't bad enough, throughout the climatic fight many of them were most likely killed. To top it off, the whole thing is disturbingly similar to the Hitler Youth. [[FridgeHorror And Nyra's name is Aryan with an "a" missing.]] Think about that for a moment.
* Sam Peckinpah's ''Cross of Iron'' features a Russian boy soldier who is captured by the German characters.
** He was later released by the protagonist, to promptly be shot by a passing Russian soldier. Cue [[HeroicBSOD Protagonist BSOD]].
* In the 1959 German movie ''Die Brücke'' (''The Bridge''), a group of seven Hitler Youth tragically try to defend their hometown from American tank troops. [[spoiler:All but one get killed.]]
** Even more tragic, the bridge had no strategic importance, their teacher had them send there in order to keep them away from actual fighting. Additional the bridge was meant to be destroyed anyway to block the Americans entering and taking the town. [[spoiler:The bridge gets saved in the end - allowing the American troops to enter the town.]] More tragic, the story '''was based on an actual event, upon the personal report of a surviving veteran''' who in his own youth experienced a similar situation in World War II.
* In ''TheStraightStory'' (DavidLynch's most logical film yet), one scene has Alvin Straight recounting [[ShellShockedSenior his experiences]] in WWII, in which he had to kill a bunch of Hitler Youth.
* In USSR there were MANY films about children fighting in the underground resistance during WW2, many of them ending being either killed or executed by Germans (''Young Eagle'', ''Zoja'', ''Fifeenth Spring'' etc). Sadly this is TruthInTelevision.
** Heavily subverted in the film ''Till the first blood'' where a war game in summer camp begins to resemble an actual war more and more.
* Another Russian film series ''The Uncatchable Avengers'' features four teenagers (3 boys and 1 girl) fighting in the Russian Civil War(1918-1924).
* ''Film/CityOfGod'' prominently features children fighting in drug wars the projects of Rio de Janiero. Children are shown killing each other, dealing and using drugs, [[spoiler:and in one shocking scene, a child is forced to execute one of his friends by the villain.]]
* In ''Film/DoctorZhivago,'' during the Russian Civil War, the Red Army unit in which Zhivago is serving as a medical officer comes under fire from a (presumably White) machine-gun nest in the distance. The Reds shoot all their attackers dead, then approach the nest and find that, while they are wearing some sort of uniform, they are only boys, except for one old man. One Red looks closer at a uniform and says, astonished, "St. Michael's Military School?!" To the dead old man: "You rotten bastard!"
* ''Film/LordOfWar'': West African dictator André Baptiste has a military unit composed entirely of child soldiers which he calls the "Kalashnikov Kids" and his "Boy Brigade".
* In ''Film/MasterAndCommander'' (see also the example from ''Aubrey-Maturin'' novels in the Literature section, below), a 12-year-old midshipman loses an arm to enemy fire in the opening scene of the film. Captain Aubrey is very solicitous of him thereafter, giving him a book with an engraving of the one-armed, one-eyed Admiral Nelson, and leaving him in command of the HMS ''Surprise'' when the other officers board a French vessel; and the boy remains so game an officer that a case could be made for including this under the "Precociously Talented Type". But, still! This is Truth in Television. In fact, most officers of the Royal Navy in that period probably started out as midshipmen in their teens or younger.
* The whole ''Literature/HarryPotter'' series is about kids getting caught up in their elders' war and recruited/forced to fight in it in various capacities. This is an instance of "Precociously Talented Type" and "Just Plain Tragic Type" combined.
* In ''Taps'', cadets at a MilitarySchool find out that the [[AdultsAreUseless useless adults]] are planning to close the school and sell the land to condo developers. With the school's commander in the hospital, they decide that [[SavingTheOrphanage they will not allow this to happen]] and barricade themselves within its walls with weapons from the well-stocked armory. This leads to the inevitable standoff with the national guard.
* In ''The Horse Soldiers'' John Ford plays this for tears and laughs.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* The midshipmen in ''Literature/AubreyMaturin'' books, tragically a case of TruthInTelevision.
* ''Aubrey-Maturin'' is not the only example -- middies in Napoleonic naval fiction are commonly in action. Richard Bolitho destroys a pirate ship at sixteen, while Literature/HoratioHornblower captured a French privateer at seventeen. Lord Ramage took to sea at thirteen. The minimum age in the Royal Navy was twelve for midshipmen, and eighteen for lieutenants. These restrictions were commonly relaxed, especially for members of prominent families. Mitigating this, midshipmen were frequently carried on the ship's books a few years before they were actually carried on the ''ship''. If a boy's father had been in the navy, some sources say that the minimum age was NINE. As the Midshipmen, there were also the ships boys, many of who were born on board ships (possible origin for the term "son of a gun", being born between the guns) and would be used in action as soon as they were able to start running powder and shot from the magazine to the guns. "Topmen" too would usually be closer to boys.
* ''Literature/HoratioHornblower'': While some of the Child Soldiers in this book series are the heroic Plucky Middie types, some of them die tragically. Similar fate awaits the ships' powder monkeys.
* Cotillion and Shadowthrone's army of orphans in ''Literature/MalazanBookOfTheFallen''. In a show of BlackHumour, the children were rescued from crucifixion and "given" to the two, which was not appreciated due to their preference for acting from the sidelines.
* ''Literature/LesMiserables'' features minor character Gavroche, a street-child who participates in the student uprising, collecting ammunition from the bodies of fallen enemy soldiers [[spoiler:and survives being shot once to throw his bag of bullets over to his friends before falling to another shot]].
* The later ''Literature/HarryPotter'' books see several underage wizards/witches seeing real combat due to various circumstances, namely the rising stakes. The most tragic example is [[spoiler: Colin Creevey]], who is killed in the book 7 finale ([[spoiler:he would have been sixteen or possibly even seventeen at this point, but his small stature would have certainly made him seem younger]]).
* In ''{{Temeraire}}'', which is as historically accurate as any series featuring dragons can be, shows young midshipmen and other military personnel among Britain's armed forces. Laurence himself ran away from home to join the Navy at twelve, and when he becomes an aviator, several of his crew are around ten, eleven, or twelve. While aviators don't actually go up at ages earlier than that and aren't part of the crew meant to fight until years later, cadets ''start'' training at seven so they're acclimated to the dragons by the time they're ready for duty. This is more presented as childhood being shorter in those days, as well as the British being pressed hard by Napoleon, than anything else. The author also does not shy away from some of these ChildSoldiers being killed, either in battle or through accidents that will occur on military vessels.
* Teenage witch ''Sylvia of Arc'' from NickPerumov's "Swords' Guardian" series. Was "considered a veteran at the age of ten." She fills both variants (i.e. is both Precociously Talented AND Tragic) of this trope, though, as she is IMMENSELY talented and could take most adult opponents with ease... until she started to run into demigods, that is.
* Even [[Literature/AliceGirlFromTheFuture Alisa Selezneva]], "Girl to whom nothing will happen" from books of Kir Bulychev, was drafted as a soldier once at age 12.
** She (actually the author) also gives an explanation WHY this is common: "If a grown up soldier revolts, he can be hard to deal with. He may very well turn the weapons you give him at you. Kids usually can be controlled by means as simple as threatening to deny them sweets."
* In Creator/DanAbnett's TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}} Literature/HorusHeresy novel ''Legion'', Chayne's BackStory: his planet, fighting the Emperor, had recruited children. Chayne had [[YouAreInCommandNow found himself in charge of his company]] when their leader died. After their defeat, the Lord Commander picked him out, gave him a guardian, and turned him into an elite Imperial soldier.
* Karin Lowachee milks this trope for all the tragedy its worth. The main character from ''[[WarchildSeries Warchild]]'' is a child solider, borderline spy and assassin, even. He's not a very happy or well-adjusted young man. But then he's contrasted with his friend Evan, who in addition to being captured and raised by pirates, is alluded to being a child whore in addition to solider. The "good guys," [[GrayAndGrayMorality if you can call them that]] use teenagers as cannon fodder.
* The second book in ''Literature/TheDalemarkQuartet'' by Creator/DianaWynneJones, ''Drowned Ammet'', introduces Mitt, a boy whose family is forced off its farm and into the city slums because they can't pay the earl's rising taxes. Then Mitt's father joins a society of revolutionaries and dies, which prompts Mitt to join the society himself, and then he gets the brilliant idea to blow up the earl.....
* In ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'', a group of barely teenagers get drafted into fighting a secret alien invasion by virtue of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Cue the loss of any personal life, killing and nearly getting killed a dozen times a week, being forced to [[DirtyBusiness sacrifice loved ones for the greater good]] and recurring nightmares that last for the rest of their lives.
* Chris Armani's ''Song For Night'' takes place in [[WhereTheHellIsSpringfield West Africa]] (presumably Nigeria, given the writer's home country) during a senseless war that forcibly recruits children. Amongst the tragedies, these kids are usually orphans, they get their vocal cords slit to keep them from making noise, they're coerced to rape innocent people by their sadistic leader, and witness their comrades get blown up by proximity mines, which they're trained to defuse. Unsurprisingly, many of them don't last past their teens. The worst part? The aforementioned statements are TruthInTelevision, since the story's based off the author's real life experiences.
* In ''Suicide Kings'' from the ''WildCards'' series Dr. Nshombo uses child Aces as soldiers. Since they have superpowers this would normally put them in the precocious category, except for how he gets them. He takes normal children in large numbers and exposes them to the wild card virus. This kills most of the people exposed to it. About nine percent suffer extreme but survivable mutations. And about one percent gain superpowers without being mutated, known as Aces. Aces or those with useful mutations are conscripted. The rest, including those who turn out to be [[WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway "deuces"]] are shot.
* The Literature/{{Gone}} series. In book 1, the BigBad has recruited superpowered kids from Coates Academy to fight for him, and TheDragon has an army ChildSoldiers armed with guns. In book 2 and 3, TheHero has an unoficial army of teenagers with superpowers, and TheLancer is the comander of an army of ChildSoldiers with guns. TheDragon beating a 9-year-old to death while laughing [[EvenEvilHasStandards is enough to disgust even the]] BigBad. Justified because they live in a TeenageWasteland.
* Robert Muchamore's unpublished book, "Home" (available online [[http://www.muchamore.com/veg.htm here]] ), which features children in a guerilla army; however, they are there purely by accident, and the leader is a pretty decent guy, though no bones are made about his kills and the psychological effects on them.
* There's a short story which details the journey of a group of children on the Children's Crusade. As history tells, it does not end well, which makes their optimism that God will favor their cause once they reach Jerusalem to be rather a TearJerker. Fortunately, the narrator had been a werewolf since birth (he joined the Crusade in the hopes of God freeing him from his curse) and the night they're delivered to Egypt as slaves happens to be just the same night as the full moon...
* Willie, husband of the narrator of ''Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All'', joined the Confederate army in the AmericanCivilWar at the age of 13. It messed him up - just how horribly is revealed gradually over the course of the book.
* Hans and Gretchen Richter in ''Literature/SixteenThirtyTwo'' were kidnapped from their peaceful family in the ThirtyYearsWar, Hans to be a soldier and Gretchen to be a SexSlave. They are forced to do their captors bidding lest their younger siblings be killed as useless mouths. The amazing thing is that they were able to remain human at all and had any capability of recivilizing themselves when they were freed.
* A young Vlad Tepes in ''Literature/CountAndCountess'' is held hostage by the Ottoman Empire and forced into the Janissaries.
* In ''Literature/WarriorCats'', one of the laws in the warrior code is that kits must be six moons old (the feline equivalent of about age 10) to begin training, and they don't see battle until they're more experienced. This rule stemmed from too many kits being trained at too young an age; it took their mothers refusing to fight in a battle to make the Clan leaders see sense. This law has been broken once during the books: Brokenstar trained [=ShadowClan=] kits to fight when they were barely weaned from their mothers, and as a result many of the Clan's kits died in battle.
* In ''Chanda's Wars'' by Allan Stratton, Chanda's siblings are taken by a warlord in an [[{{Bulungi}} unnamed Sub-Saharan African country]] to be soldiers.
* ''Literature/SomeoneElsesWar'' is about a fictitious Muslim boy who joins the (real) Lord's Resistance Army to find and save his little brother from this fate.
* All of the soldier boys from ''Literature/TheDrownedCities''. {{Sociopathic Soldier}}s abound, especially among those who've reached their [[TeensAreMonsters teenage years]] or grown up.
* Arya Stark from ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire''. In ''A Game of Thrones'', she is just a spirited tomboy, meant as a foil to her ladylike sister Sansa. As of ''A Dance with Dragons'', war has killed off most of her family, and hardened her character: hoping to become lethal enough to kill who she views as the men responsible for her close ones' death, she becomes an assassin-in-training for the feared Faceless Men. The fact that she doesn't seem to feel any remorse or guilt while killing just adds to her creepiness.
* The autobiography ''A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier'' by Ishmael Beah is a [[{{Tearjerker}} very chilling]] account written by a boy who was removed from the government army of Sierra Leone by a group from UNICEF. See the RealLife section for more details.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live Action TV]]
* The series finale of ''Series/{{JAG}}'' had one of the officers dealing with a marine who is actually only 16 years who lied about his age signing up. To resolve the situation, the lawyer talks the Marine Corps into making the kid an honorary Marine before he is sent home to his mother with a promise that they would be delighted to recruit him legally when the time is right.
* Dealt with in several later-season episodes of ''Series/{{Mash}}''.
** Famously, in "Sometimes You Hear the Bullet":
--->'''[[RonHoward Wendell]]:''' I'm never gonna forgive you for this! Not for the rest of my life!
--->'''Hawkeye:''' Let's hope it's a long and healthy hate.
* ''[[Series/TwentyFour 24: Redemption]]'' sees Jack Bauer rescuing the pupils of school from becoming ChildSoldiers and also features them.
* In ''{{Firefly}}'', if the SchoolForScheming's [[MindRape plan]] had [[SuperSoldier worked]], River Tam would have become one of these. She was sent to an Alliance-controlled Academy, aged fourteen, for what she and her family thought was a more challenging curriculum than normal high schools. Instead, she got the TrainingFromHell, and it's implied that she isn't the only one to get it, just one of the only ones to actually ''live'' through the process, and there very likely were other kids screwed just as much as she did (only the series couldn't get deep enough for being cancelled). By the time she's rescued from the facility by [[PapaBear her brother Simon]], she's only seventeen years old.
* ''Series/BandOfBrothers'' touches on this a couple times:
** In episode 4, intelligence for Operation Market Garden stated that the German soldiers in the Netherlands were mostly "children and old men". This turned out to be inaccurate and contributed to the failure of the operation.
** Pvt. Jackson, who died by his own grenade in episode 8, was noted to have lied about his age when he joined the army at 16.
** In episode 5, Winters is haunted by the memory of shooting a German soldier who looked no older than 18.
* A looser example, but during ''TheWire'' season 4, Michael (who was only 13 or 14 at time) was forced to become this for Marlo's drug crew. It was the only way for him to escape his worsening circumstances at home. While Michael could handle taking his finances from his junkie mother, the return of his step-father made him feel threatened (and for good reason, if he was really molested by him). By requesting the help of the local gangsters, it gave Michael their protection and housing to get him and his step-brother away from home. ''TheWire'' implies that many young inner-city kids (including Bodie and Wallace) got their start in the drug game through similar circumstances. Even Calvin lampshades this in season 4 when he stated that by 18, kids are too deep into the drug game to be reformed, let alone act civilized to authorities.
* Kira Nerys of ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' joined [[LaResistance the Bajoran resistance]] at the age of twelve or thirteen. While she was willing (indeed, eager) to join the fight against the Cardassians who were occupying her planet and her side was generally the "good guys", this show fully exploited WarIsHell and TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized, meaning that much of what she saw and did allows her to qualify as this.
* [[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer Buffy]] leads the potential slayers into what is essentially a hopeless war in season seven, with many or most of them being under 18. For that matter, though it was more of a lone warrior gig [[spoiler: prior to season seven]] any slayer would probably qualify, since 15-16 seems to be the usual age to be called, and 16 to 17 the usual age to be killed.
* ''Series/DoctorWho'': Sontarans, sort of; as a cloned race of {{Proud Warrior Race Guy}}s, they skip past anything we would recognize as childhood, both physically and mentally. The episode "A Good Man Goes to War" alludes to this:
--> '''Strax:''' It's all right. I've had a good life. I'm nearly twelve.
* ''{{Farscape}}'': Peacekeeper training starts young. Some recruits are the result of an "assigned birthing to fill the ranks" and others are conscripted from Sebacean colonies. Those born into service never get to know their parents as it is against the rules for parents to make any contact with their children.
* In ''Series/{{Hornblower}}'', the miniseries adaptation of the books, this trope doesn't appear very prominently, but there are some children aboard ships, both British and their enemies. Series two featured some powder monkeys. In "Loalty" (series three), there's a memorable gory scene when young Midshipman Jack Hammond freaked out because he got splattered with blood of one little powder boy who got blown up to smithereens with a cannon ball. There are also many characters who fall into the naval type, and those Plucky Middies got explored more and viewers got to know them better. Alas, they made us root for them, [[BreakTheCutie only to let them suffer later]] and then [[KillTheCutie let them die tragically]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Music]]
* The song ''Little Gun'' by LupeFiasco is about child soldiers, but also video games.
* {{Rasputina}}'s "Child Soldier Rebellion".
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* Turns up several times in the ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}}'' universe, particularly in the [[AllThereInTheManual supporting materials]]. The defence of Hive Hellsreach during the Second Battle for Armageddon is one of the more poignant examples.
--> Evacuees will be restricted to those below the age of seven (plus one parent/guardian) and those above the age of ninety. Regrettably, there are not enough places for everyone, so each person eligible for evacuation will be assigned a number. [...] If you are not eligible for evacuation you will be immediately assigned to a hive defence unit - details of where to report will follow this announcement.

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Theatre]]
* The Wole Soyinka play ''Travel Club and Boy Soldier'' is about a military coup in an unspecified third-world nation, and the "Commandant" who's leading the whole thing is, well, the titular boy soldier. He's a teenager when the takeover happens, but he's been in the army for years by that point.
* ''Theatre/LesMiserables'' features Gavroche, who tags along with the student revolutionaries (who are themselves implied in several songs to be at ''most'' in their early 20s) and [[spoiler:manages to take 2 bullets while collecting ammunition for the students before he is fatally shot in the head]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* ''SuikodenII'' is the ur-example of this trope. The story begins two friends who, during military training in a youth brigade, are attacked by their own country's forces dressed up as a neighboring nation's units, just to justify going to war with that nation. Many child soliders such as Pohl are even killed (in his case, run through by Luca Blight). [[spoiler:Your childhood friend, Nanami even tries on more than one occasion to get the protagonist to abandon the war, saying that they're just kids and they have no place in a war. Agreeing to run away with her leads into one of the most emotional scenes in the game, which is no small feat.]]
* The protagonist of ''{{Planetarian}}'' is a former child soldier, and has {{Flashback Nightmare}}s about the experience throughout the game.
* In the ''Franchise/MetalGear'' series, this is the BackStory of aforementioned Frank Jaeger and [[spoiler:Raiden]]. It turned the former into a badass and the latter into a psychological wreck. To be fair, Frank's a psychological wreck, too.
** The Beauty & Beast Corps that Snake fights in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4'' are all child soldiers who were horribly traumatized in their childhood. For example, Laughing Octopus was forced to laugh while she killed people, despite the fact that she found it horrifying, and so she cackles like a hyena all through her boss battle. At the end, she confesses, "I'm not really laughing..."
** Big Boss's final plan was to rescue war orphans and train them as soldiers, then feed them onto the battlefield to perpetuate an endless cycle of warfare.
* ''{{Drakengard}}'' features a few missions where the enemy soldiers are child conscripts. Naturally, Caim, being the murderous nutcase that he is, viciously slaughters them all, much to the dismay of his more level-headed comrades.
** [[DysfunctionJunction Particularly the pedophile, though the child-eating cannibal is pretty ecstatic at the fresh food.]] One of your comrades is an eternal child forced to do a lot of killing, including [[spoiler:his own sister]], and who is ultimately forced to make [[spoiler:a HeroicSacrifice that doesn't even kill him, but leaves him stranded alone in a timeless void incapable of even achieving the peace of death]]. It's safe to say Drakengard ''revels'' in this trope, [[GainaxEnding especially when the Abominations show up.]]
** In the game is a mission where most of the foes are the normal faceless adults you've been used to fighting throughout the game, except for a small squad of child conscripts. You can ignore them easily enough, but if you want one of the unlockable weapons during this mission, you have to hunt them down. And since getting all the endings in Drakengard requires every single weapon, you're forced to do this.
* EmotionlessGirl Leona from ''VideoGame/TheKingOfFighters'' started this way, after [[spoiler: [[SelfMadeOrphan killing her own parents]] under Goenitz's MoreThanMindControl]] and being adopted by ColonelBadass Heidern [[spoiler: who had lost his daughter and wife]].
* ''VideoGame/{{Iji}}'' and her brother Dan are pressed into fighting an alien invasion because [[TheOnlyOne everyone else is dead.]] Some of the logbooks imply that the Tasen draft soldiers as soon as they're old enough to hold a rifle, somewhat justified as [[spoiler:the Komato have hunted them to the brink of extinction.]]
** Iji is actually 20 years old, so she doesn't count. The diary writing alien soldier and her girlfriend are definite examples, though.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII'' is a {{deconstruction}} of this trope. The protagonists are all members of an elite fighting force trained from the age of 5, and all but one are orphans. The AppliedPhlebotinum they use to enhance their power also has the side effect of eroding their memories. It's hardly surprising, then, that their heads are royally fucked up. It also makes another point: early in the game, the protagonists are assigned to an assassination mission that [[NiceJobBreakingItHero goes tits up]] entirely due to the protagonists making inept decisions based on their emotions. Their attempt was certainly commendable, but it's made glaringly clear that the reason for their failure was due to their inexperience and youth.
* ''SuikodenV'' has [[MurderInc Nether Gate]]; among their many, many atrocities is how they raise children to become career assassins. The player meets several members; some managed to escape its influence and have spent years recovering. Others... haven't.
* In ''VideoGame/BrothersInArms'': Hell's Highway it is implied that [[spoiler:Frankie]] is under 18. He dies.
** Some people did (and still do!) lie about their age in order to join the military.
* ''FireEmblem'' games usually play this for drama. The younger members often have some tragic backstory that forces them into war. A few examples: Amelia, Ross, and Franz from VideoGame/FireEmblemTheSacredStones all have a MissingMom. The latter two suffering from varying degrees of DisappearedDad. Amelia's mom was kidnapped by bandits, [[FridgeHorror whatever that may lead to]] [[spoiler:Though, if you support Amelia with Duessel, we learn that her mom got better]]. Ross's mom got sick and died, and his father, who had left them to join the army, retired to raise his son. Franz's mother got sick and died as well, his father, a knight, died fighting bandits. We also have Colm and Neimi. Neimi was raised by her grandfather, and when he died, Colm was the only other person she had. Naturally, those two are the fastest support in the game, usually able to get to A level by the 8th chapter.
* ''[[FirstEncounterAssaultRecon F.E.A.R.]]'' has [[PsychicPowers psychic commmando]] Paxton Fettel, as well as the player character, the Point Man. Though grown by the events of the game, both were trained from birth. Fettel in particular killed people when he was only ten, [[spoiler: though not in combat, and it wasn't entirely his fault...]]
** The psychological and emotional ramifications are explored in third game. Essentially, they're both scared children running from something far more powerful then them and either becoming obsessed with that (or similar) power or lashing out mindlessly in fear.
** The Point Man was entered into stasis at around 16, and taken out and trained when he was physically in his late 20s. It's hinted (but never made clear) that he [[FridgeHorror might still be a child mentally]].
* ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'': You can talk to a [[RetiredBadass Retired NCR Ranger]] with a broken leg in Novac. If you ask him why his leg is broken, he'll say that it was because the Legion sent children as suicide bombers against him and his squad, knowing they'd hesitate to shoot.
* In ''[[DissidiaFinalFantasy Dissidia 012: Duodecim]]'', [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII Vaan]], [[MythologyGag possibly in reference to the orphaned friends he had in his own youth in the slums of Rabanastre]], views the fact that the young [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyIII Onion Knight]] is also part of the Conflict of the Gods as being a tragedy (despite the fact that the latter is very capable of holding his own, to the point that everyone else on the team ignores his age and sees him as a worthy peer), and so ends up inadvertently patronising him for his youth.
* Subtly implied to be the case if Shepard has the Colonist Background in ''MassEffect''. We are never given the details precisely of ''how'' they survived the Batarian raid on Mindoir on their 16th birthday, which wiped out their entire family. Judging from other first-hand descriptions, the raid is implied to have been a bloodbath, meaning that it's very likely that Shepard had pick up a weapon and do a ''lot'' of [[TookALevelInBadass growing up that day.]]
** Turians are said to have a life cycle similar to humans' but are also known to conscript ''every'' able-bodied young person into the military at only fifteen years of age. The psychological ramifications of subjecting teenage boys to military life and warfare en masse are left unexplored (but maybe that explains [[HurtingHero Garrus]] and [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope Saren]]).

[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* Cloud's mom, Ye Thuza, from ''Webcomic/SandraAndWoo'' was recently revealed to have been with Burmese rebels when she was only 16. While it hasn't been explored in much detail yet, it's certainly demonstrated a touch more seriously than the overall tone of the comic, [[DontExplainTheJoke apart from being half of a punchline in which Ye Thuza remarks she's "always been a rebel" while comparing her life as an American housewife to her years in Burma]].
* RubysWorld uses this as the base of the conflict; the villains regularly use third world children as material for their cybernetic super-soldiers, and several of the young heroes have this blood-stained technology in their bodies.
* In ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'', after a monster attacked Susan in Paris, two Immortals empowered her and Nanase, and instructed how to kill it. Later, in the Hammerchlorians storyline, it was revealed that these Immortals could have very easily gone to an experienced local magic-user instead. Susan... didn't take it well.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'': Aang--the only character who knows what it is to live in a time of peace (other than Bumi, who is at this point over a 100 years old)--is the last survivor of a genocide. Then you have [[WellIntentionedExtremist Jet]], Sokka (who is put in charge of the defence of a village ''and'' an invasion), ''Zuko'' (the poster child for emotionally/physically scarred ChildSoldiers), Katara (her childhood ended at ''nine'')... One of the main villains is a ''fourteen year old girl'' [[spoiler:who ends up having a VillainousBreakdown]]. It's even lampshaded a few times.
---> '''Katara:''' I haven't done this since I was a kid!
---> '''Aang:''' You are a kid!

--->'''Zuko:''' You're just a child!
--->'''Aang:''' Well, you're just a teenager.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Real Life]]
* A disturbing number of conflicts in RealLife have drawn children into them. Worse, it still happens, especially with the more renegade military forces of the world. Even by historical standards children who should have been considered far too young for service have throughout history been forced into real combat situations.
* The NGO War Child estimates that there are 250,000 child soldiers in the world today.
* The CIA world factbook's "Manpower fit for military service" starts at age 16. International Law requires that conscription can't start until age 18.
* [[LaResistance Resistance movements]] often feature child soldiers, given that the adults fit for military service have for the most part been killed, captured, or otherwise neutralized by the invading army. During the Armenian Genocide the ''Armenian Boy Scouts'' ''as an organization'' saw signficant combat action (although they were officially utilized in support roles such as hospital staff).
* in the days of black powder and line infantry, drummer boys, many only 11 years old, some younger, stood in the front rank, armed only with their musical instruments as the men around them fought
** The 'musics' who survived the battle also doubled as stretcher-bearers, carrying the wounded to the filthy and disease-ridden field hospitals, where [[BodyHorror amputation and cauterization]] ''[[AndIMustScream without anesthesia]]'' were often the only treatment available to the wounded. Although not normally a combat role, it was most certainly a traumatic one.
** In those same days there were also powder monkeys, boys of the same age who transported gun powder on ships.
[[/folder]]

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