Factual error: In the scene in Kono, one of the child soldiers is seen with a Game Boy Advance SP, which was released in 2003, but the movie takes place in the 90's.
Factual error: Throughout the entire movie, the vehicles are driven on the left side of the road. Sierra Leone drives on the right. This is likely because the filming locations of South Africa and Mozambique drive on the left.
Continuity mistake: In the beginning, the bad guy with a red beret tells the kid about the consequences of voting. He extends his left hand with a paper in it. In the next angle he is holding a machete. Then in the next one, he is back with the paper.
Revealing mistake: When Solomon finishes negotiating with the diamond dealer and steps out of the car, it drives away. Presumably the shot was to appear that it pulls away and drives off into traffic, but the car doesn't clear the camera before it stops. The car just pulls ahead about 30 feet and stops again.
Continuity mistake: When Danny first spots Maddy in the bar, his cigarette is broken. Then he sits down, and there is nothing wrong with it.
Continuity mistake: At the end of the movie they show the article written by Maddy and a photo of Archer that she took, in the photo he is facing to the side but when she took the photo he was facing her full-on.
Continuity mistake: Danny takes a sip from his beer but the camera changes and he is suddenly holding his beer. (01:15:25)
Continuity mistake: Danny has two small wounds on his forehead on the right side which disappear through the film.
Factual error: When Solomon is in London towards the end of the movie, one shot shows a new 2006 model Volkswagen Passat in the background, even though the movie takes place in the late 90's.
Factual error: When Solomon goes fishing in the morning, the sun is shown to have risen over the sea. In reality, the sun would rise over land, as Sierra Leone is on the West Coast, revealing the shot of the sunrise was taken elsewhere.
Factual error: At the end of the film when Solomon is in London we see a bendy bus behind him. The problem with this is that the film is set in the late 90s, but bendy buses were only introduced in London in 2001.
Continuity mistake: When Danny and Maddy are at the bar, Danny says, "Get over yourself, darling," and then proceeds to light a cigarette, which he holds between his index and middle fingers. When the shot changes, he is holding it between his thumb and the rest of his fingers.
Continuity mistake: After Solomon takes the kid to the bus, he gets in but he suddenly appears in the car with Danny Maddy and the other guy.
Factual error: The plane at the beginning of the film, a Gippsland GA8 Airvan, only existed as a prototype during the late 1990s when the film is supposed to take place. They were not produced until late 2000.
Other mistake: At the start of the film Danny is caught trying to smuggle diamonds into Liberia. The Liberian border guards catch him, but somehow he ends up in a Sierra Leone prison instead of a Liberian one.
Factual error: Throughout the film Danny Archer wears a Breitling Chrono Avenger. The problem with this is that the film is set in the late 90s but the Chrono Avenger was only released in 2001.
Factual error: When Danny is at the beach bar, he asks Ahmed the bartender to give him the scoop on the government troops hitting Marampa mines. Iron ore is mined at Marampa, not diamonds (no diamonds at Marampa). Kono was the rebels' stronghold, and that's where the diamonds are.
Factual error: When Danny is walking in Freetown to sell the diamond that was hidden in his tooth, the diamond office's phone number posted starts with a 1 followed by 3. All Freetown landlines start with 22 then the number.
Continuity mistake: The second time Danny and Maddy are in the bar together, after the finish dancing, they head over to the bar. Danny puts a cigarette in his mouth, but when it cuts to the other side, the cigarette is gone from his mouth, and he does a shot.
Continuity mistake: When the main characters are stopped on the bridge by the child soldiers the boy shoots out the window of the bus. When they reach the air strip the bus window is unbroken. (01:00:00)
Answer: Adults may be physically stronger and more skilled, but that makes them harder to capture and more dangerous to their captors as they would resist and attempt to escape. Children can be indoctrinated to their cause and are more easily intimidated into being compliant. If they're killed, it's easier to kidnap more.
raywest ★