Child soldier

Child soldiers are children who are raised as soldiers or children that are forced to fight in battlefields usually considered to be younger then 16-18.

History
Throughout history and in many cultures, children have been extensively involved in military campaigns even when such practices were supposedly against cultural morals. Since the 1970s a number of international conventions have come into effect that try to limit the participation of children in armed conflicts, though the practice still remains widespread in some parts of the world, namely because International Law means nothing in war, with at least 300,000 child soldiers being deployed by 2009.

The growth of the "war economy" in the early 2010s led to an increase in the use of child soldiers on the battlefield, with the soldiers recruited by private military companies also becoming younger as a result.

Former child soldiers

 * Raiden, during the Liberian Civil War, in the Small Boy Unit.
 * Frank Jaeger, during the Mozambican War of Independence. He later underwent training by the CIA in order to become the Perfect Soldier "Null."
 * Drebin 893, during the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) insurgency in Uganda.
 * Chico, as a member of the Sandinista National Liberation Front (FSLN).

Other military uses of children
In 1999, the military fortress of Zanzibar Land was inhabited by many children who had been "saved" from various other wars by Big Boss. Though they were not deployed as child soldiers, Big Boss intended to train and equip these children to fight in the wars of the next generation once they came of age.

Behind the scenes
Despite adolescent experience with warfare being endemic to the games' casts to some extent or another, no "observed" faction in the Metal Gear series actively employs child soldiers, likely due to international video game ratings standards' possible objections. Several of the factions that used them during the series, however, were often proxies of the Patriots and the Philosophers.

The entry for Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake in the Previous Operations section of Metal Gear Solid and its remake, The Twin Snakes, omitted any references to the Zanzibar Land children.

Elisa/Ursula, a member of FOX who took part in the San Hieronymo Takeover, was implied to have been of a young age in Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops. Sniper Wolf and Olga Gurlukovich, of Metal Gear Solid and Metal Gear Solid 2 respectively, both claimed to have been "raised on the battlefield." However, the games did not specify whether or not any of these characters had actively participated in war as child soldiers. Solid Snake (and presumably Liquid Snake) were also implied to have been raised in the military since early childhood with the purpose of serving as an insurance policy for Cipher/The Patriots in case they failed to both bring Big Boss back into their organization and frame him and the MSF for a nuclear attack against the East Coast should he refuse.