Spykid
Children have been used as a weapon during human history. The forces of evil have no moral or conscious. Such an example is one sultan of the Ottoman Empire who ordered the special military forces to make a razia all over the christian provinces populated with oppressed ethnic minorities. Their mission was to deprive all the male children under the age of five years. The memory of kids under five years age is not conscious so they can be programmed to forget their origin if they are ripped off from the family. Thousands of boys were placed in military institution all around todays Turkey. They were brainwashed to become cold blooded murderers. Here were the hisorical facts. There is a legend that when one of those murderers was once accidentially sent to his home-village. While he was kidnapping children himself, he was on his way to kidnap his sisters child when an old woman tried to stop him. He rose his sword to kill her but she happen to be his own mother. The woman saw a very special birthmark in the form of a lion that her own deprived son had on his arm. At the same moment she recognized him and screamed "Don't kill me! I am your mother." The warrior went through a dramatic transformation in his soul and remembered. Then he turned against the Ottoman empire and started to fight with the Bulgarian rebels instead. His name was Indge.
The story about the spykid happens for real 200 years later. It was 1965 in Sofia, Bulgaria, on the east side of the Berlin Wall. My father was ten years old and he had found a new friend in school. The boy's name is Peter and he wass an orfant. He lived in an institution nearby. My father came from a traditional christian family and invited Peter often at home to share with the orfant boy the togetherness of a real family. There was a major issue with the whole family. They were branded as an enemy of the people. This stamp was made by the communistic party to place eventual opposition in a negative image. Those days there was no internet, so if the government wanted to surveil and monitor its citizens other methods were needed.
Anyway, the years went by and Peter celebrated holidays with my fathers family and shared their food. He and my father played at school and after school. He became the third brother and son for a while. My father must have been somehow naive. Most goodhearted and tolerant people are. While the confidence within the friendship was solid, Peter was once a week at the police-office writing detailed reports about everything said and done in my fathers family.
When the Berlin wall was torn down, the cold war over and a regime-change was constituted, all citizens could check their files at the office of the secret services. My father was curious. Several times in his life he was sorted out from jobs and education despite perfect grades and performance. He wanted to know why. There was the answer: Peter - the spykid. My father was quite disappointed, I remember. He suspected colleagues and neighbors, but a close friend… No... But yes - sad but true.
So if the government wants to know something about you, you can't hide anything. If they want to prevent you from being heard or grow powerful, it is a minor issue. Beware!