Colombia’s armed groups turn TikTok and Facebook into recruiting grounds for children
Colombia’s long-running conflict has found a new recruiting ground, one that fits inside a child’s pocket. Human Rights Watch has warned that illegal armed groups are increasingly using TikTok, Facebook and other social-media platforms to recruit children, combining propaganda, promises of money and status, coded language and carefully chosen emojis to draw minors toward illegal […]
Colombia's longstanding conflict has found a new form of recruitment through social media platforms like TikTok and Facebook, targeting children. Human Rights Watch warns that illegal armed groups are using these platforms to lure minors with propaganda, promises of money and status, coded language, and carefully selected emojis.
The organization estimates that over 1,500 children have been recruited by criminal organizations since 2021, but the actual number may be much higher due to underreporting. The crisis is concentrated in some of Colombia's most violent regions, where groups like the EMC, FARC dissidents, the ELN, and the Clan del Golfo compete for territory and control of illicit economies.
However, recruitment is not limited to rural Colombia; armed groups have adapted to use social media to make recruitment appear less threatening. They employ symbols like ninjas, clovers, and bundles of cash, as well as emojis, to glamorize life in an armed organization. Social media allows recruiters to begin with ordinary conversations, offering money, transportation, employment, or a glamorous life.
Once contact is established, they move the conversation to private messaging platforms. This online recruitment presents Colombian authorities with a new challenge, as traditional warning signs can be invisible until a child is already involved in an armed structure. The Defensoría del Pueblo recorded 1,173 cases of illegal recruitment between 2024 and July 31, 2026.
In one tragic incident, three minors aged 15 and 16 were killed during Operation Amón in Guaviare on August 27, 2025. This highlights the contradiction that while children are victims of armed groups, they can also become casualties of the state's campaign against those same organizations. The new Colombian government aims to revive offensive military operations, but preventing children from entering armed camps may require understanding the recruitment process on teenagers' phones before they are encountered in the jungle.
Written by urgent.news from The City Paper Bogotá's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
