( CNN ) ISIS ' recent video showing a child shooting a man whom the extremist group claimed was an Israeli spy is the latest example of how the militants exploit children in their propaganda . As ISIS encourages foreign fighters to bring their families into the parts of Syria and Iraq where it imposes its brutal rule , the catalog of children taking part in shocking acts is grim and growing . The deeply disturbing cases shine a light into the range of ways the militants are using children to further their aims . In August , an Australian man who had taken his young family to join ISIS in Syria posted a photo on Twitter of his 7-year-old son using both hands to hold up a man 's severed head . `` That 's my boy , '' the father wrote alongside the photo , which was reportedly taken in ISIS ' Syrian stronghold of Raqqa . In a video the jihadist group released in January , a boy with long hair wearing a black sweater and military fatigue pants appears to shoot two men in the back of the head . The boy then stands over one of the bodies , fires two more times , and later raises his pistol in the air . Last month , when ISIS publicized its immolation of the captive Jordanian fighter pilot Lt. Moath al-Kasasbeh , one of its videos showed a young boy watching a public screening of the killing in Raqqa and saying that he would `` burn the pilot '' himself if he had the chance . Those examples reflect a broader effort to induct children into ISIS ' campaign of violence . ISIS has also promoted videos of young boys training as fighters , some of them wearing the militants ' black masks , holding bullets and waving the group 's flags . The jihadist movement has called the boys the `` cubs of the caliphate , '' a reference to the way ISIS fighters refer to one another as `` lions . '' It has taken over schools with the purpose of indoctrinating children . Human Rights Watch has said that ISIS and other extremist groups `` have specifically recruited children through free schooling campaigns that include weapons training and have given them dangerous tasks , including suicide bombing missions . '' The United Nations has said there are confirmed reports of children as young as 12 undergoing military training . One 15-year-old boy told CNN in November how he was regularly strapped into an explosive vest and handed a pistol , an AK-47 and a radio to stand guard at an ISIS base in Syria . Another boy told CNN last year that ISIS forced his father to send him to one of its children 's camps in northern Syria when he was just 13 . `` For 30 days we woke up and jogged , had breakfast , then learned the Quran and the Hadith of the Prophet . Then we took courses on weapons , Kalashnikovs and other light military stuff , '' said the boy , who later fled to Turkey with his family . Some of the militants at the camp were kind , joking and laughing with the younger recruits , he recalled . Others made the boys watch hideous things . `` They used to bring young [ kids ] to the camp to lash them , '' said the boy , whose real name was withheld because of fears for his safety . `` When we go to the mosque , they order us to come the next day at a specific time and place to [ watch ] heads cut off , lashings or stonings . '' `` We saw a young man who did not fast for Ramadan , so they crucified him for three days , and we saw a woman being stoned [ to death ] because she committed adultery , '' he said . Syrian activists say that some of the boys indoctrinated and trained at such camps are now being killed on the front lines of battle . CNN is unable to independently verify those claims . The militant group , also known as ISIL and the Islamic State , is aggressively using social media to try to lure more young people to join its ranks . The decision of three British teenage girls to travel to Syria last month was a stark example of ISIS ' ability to attract young Westerners . Another young British woman who left Scotland to join ISIS in 2013 now appears to write a blog about her life under the extremists ' rule , describing perks and offering reassurances to those who might follow in her footsteps . Western officials , though , say that ISIS is pushing a false narrative of what things are really like in its territory . But officials also admit they 're struggling to counter the relentless wave of propaganda churned out on social media by ISIS members and supporters . `` There 's no question what we 're combating with ISIL 's propaganda machine is something we have not seen before , '' U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told CNN last month .
Children are regularly featured in grisly ISIS propaganda . The group has also been accused of using children as suicide bombers and executing them for being gay.