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Children have the right to take part in public life, but adults must not use them to promote their own political views or causes, Cyprus Children’s Rights Commissioner Elena Perikleous has said.
Her comments came after children appeared in videos posted on social media by Cypriot MEP Fidias Panayiotou, in connection with a public campaign concerning electricity. Perikleous said she had already contacted Panayiotou, expressing serious concerns about how the children’s involvement had been arranged.
The Commissioner said the issue goes beyond the particular videos and raises important questions about how children are allowed to participate in public life.
Children, she said, should be given enough information to understand the issue they are being asked to speak about. Their participation should be voluntary, and they should be expressing their own views rather than repeating messages created by adults.
Perikleous stressed that children have the right to be informed, ask questions, disagree, form their own opinions and call for change. They can also take part peacefully in demonstrations and other forms of public activity when an issue affects them.
The distinction, she said, is between children choosing to participate and adults using children to strengthen a cause.
Using children to give greater force to a political position or public campaign cannot be considered genuine participation, Perikleous said. If an adult uses their influence to steer a child's opinion or decision, this could amount to manipulation.
“Children cannot be used as a means of achieving goals set by others,” the Commissioner said, stressing that adults should instead create the conditions for children to become informed, exchange views and reach their own conclusions.
She also pointed to the digital environment, where children’s involvement can quickly become public through social media.
A child's right to participate, she said, should never be treated as an adult's right to mobilise that child for their own purposes.
Perikleous concluded that protecting children from exploitation must go hand in hand with respecting their right to have opinions, make choices and participate in society.
