MIAMI (CBSMiami/NSF) – Most political candidates and parties often discuss children as the future of the United States. But, a new study has found that children are being almost completely ignored by the GOP candidates running for president in 2012 and the media.

According to the study from the Child and Family Policy Center, candidates and the media discussed children’s issues less than two percent of the time over the course of 20 debates. A total of 17 debate questions related to children were asked out of more than 1,000 total questions.

“They’re not talking about children,” Roy Miller, head of the Florida Children’s Campaign, told the News Service of Florida about the candidates. “And that includes their own children. I mean, we gave them credit if they even mentioned they had kids of their own.”

According to Miller, children make up 24 percent of the population, or roughly 74 million children in America. But, they don’t have the clout to force politicians to be accountable on children’s issues, Miller told the NSF.

Dr. Charles Bruner, who was a co-author of the study, said that children’s issues have become increasingly important as the recession deprived kids of many things and because kids achieve 90 percent of their brain development in the first five years of life.

“For adults to have a bad year or two is one thing,” Bruner told the NSF. “But for a seven year old to have a year or two where they struggle, that puts them way behind in their development.”

Polls have showed that most voters are concerned about the eight million children who are without health care coverage. But instead of discussing how to get the children coverage, most of the debate questions have centered on getting rid of the Affordable Care Act, which is anathema to Republicans.

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