On every tour I ever went on (except the first, which was to a very nice European country), children were absolutely considered two-way sources of fairly true information. Small children don't lie when they're confronted by men with guns, regardless of who those men are working for. That was a blessing and a curse. Incidentally, we usually knew when the enemy was going to attack on a particular day, because there wouldn't be any children around. That being said, some of the worst people in those places use children in their attacks.