Commissioner warns against using children as political props after Fidias video

Children’s rights commissioner Elena Pericleous on Monday warned against the use of children as political props, after member of the European Parliament Fidias Panayiotou had a day earlier published a video of children calling on the public to attend a protest against high energy prices he has organised for next week. She said that she has already sent a letter to Fidias, “bringing to his attention my strong concern regarding the manner in which the participation of children was ensured in this particular public intervention”. “However, I consider it important to take a public position, as the issue which is being raised does not only concern the case in question. It concerns a broader and particularly important issue of children’s rights – the way in which we, adults, perceive and ensure the meaningful participation of children in public life,” she said. She added that “children’s participation is a right and cannot be turned into a means to serve the purpose or aspirations of adults”. “For this reason, every time children participate in public interventions or social mobilisations, we must ensure that they have been properly informed beforehand, that they understand the issue on which they are being asked to take a position, that their participation is out of their own free will, and that they are expressing their own opinion and not a message which has been shaped by adults,” she said. To this end, she stressed that “children have a voice, and that voice belongs to them”, and that they “have the right to be informed, to question, to seek explanations, to form an opinion, to demand changes, to care about what is happening around them, [and] to have an opinion about the society in which they are growing up”. However, she added, “children’s participation is one thing, but their being used as tools by adults is quite another”. ‘It may fall within the scope of manipulation’ “Using children as a means to reinforce a political position or a public demonstration does not constitute participation, and when the influence an adult can exert is used to direct a child’s opinion or choice, then it may fall within the scope of manipulation,” she said. She added that “children cannot be the means to achieve goals set by others, nor can their voice be used to amplify the voice of adults”. Panayiotou had on Sunday posted a video to social media in which he said that a group of nine children who were playing football “want to tell you something”. Following a cut in the video, around three or four children declared that “energy prices must go down”, before Panayiotou asked the group if they knew when his planned protest is set to take place, and one correctly answered that it will be held on October 17. He then continued the video by saying that the protest will begin in Nicosia’s central Eleftheria Square and lead towards the presidential palace in Strovolos, before the video cut back to the children, whom he asked; “why is it important for energy prices to fall?”. One of the children said that it would “allow us to save money”, before he said that “we have some of the most expensive electricity in Europe” and that cutting prices would mean that “we will save more money to buy PlayStation CDs or Fortnite”, a popular video game.