Child combatants is one of those horrifying, moral grey areas that can really mess with a person, or harden them in a way that society doesn't really care for.
I think this is one of those areas where it's worth discussing with the Players how they feel their Characters will react (although this should not be done before you spring the first encounter on them otherwise the shock value would be lost). I think it should be a case by case basis (and fortunately with the game you're only dealing with a small number of people, i.e. the Players, to sort this out).
I feel that there are some Characters who would not be particularly effected by encountering child soldiers. Some of those people have endured the hardship of war for so many years that they have become closed off from the emotional impact, simply as a survival technique (for their mental health) if nothing else.
There are other soldiers who may have encountered child soldiers before, in operations before the Twilight War, so the emotional distress isn't as impactful to them.
I'm not saying every Player should be allowed to use this as some sort of "Get out of jail Free" card, it's not to be used as an excuse to avoid the consequences. It's just that I know from talks I've had with Vietnam War veterans, some of them dealt with this sort of situation in the past and of those, some of them expressed the attitude that they would not hesitate to shoot an enemy soldier simply because the enemy was a child.
Harsh? Definitely. Brutal? Absolutely. But it's survival and not just physical survival. Some of them adopted that attitude for their mental survival as well "They will kill me or my comrades if I do not kill them first" sort of thing.
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