During the election campaign, the Commissioner for Children’s office is keeping a close watch to ensure that images of children used in campaign posters will not be identifiable.

Last month, Commissioner for Children Pauline Miceli expressed her concern regarding the participation of minors both in political campaigns and for communication purposes. Following her expression of concern, participation standards have been drawn up by a number of local institutions.

Noting a reduction in the use of children in photographs during the election campaign so far, The Malta Independent on Sunday asked Ms Miceli for her opinion on the situation so far.

In a reply, she said: “The office is very closely following the ongoing election campaign to ensure that where images of children are used, they are not traceable to particular and identifiable children who live in Malta.”

She went on to mention that her office has also noticed the ‘common practice’ of parents taking their children to mass meetings. “Political allegiance should not be seen and practiced as an element of family identity”, she said.

“Parents should respect the intelligence of their children and let them decide for themselves, when they are old and mature enough to do so, which political group or belief they want to support.

“The practice of parents taking their children to partisan political events with them, placing them in an environment that encourages them to show off their support for a particular political party, is all too common,” said Ms Miceli.

“That is not to say that political issues should not be discussed within the family, but such discussion should be managed in a way that respects the ability of children to understand the issues and make up their own mind on them.

“Children will benefit from living in families where political issues are discussed in an objective, dispassionate and non-partisan manner, and therefore in a society where political differences do not divide people but unite them around their shared interests,” she said.

The standards put forward by the Commissioner for Children are not legally binding, of course, but “the fact that the main political parties were represented on the Technical Committee augurs very well for the observance of these standards,” said Ms Miceli.