News published on 9 June 2018 revealed that the UK army is placing recruitment advertisements on social media around GCSE results day, encouraging young people who are disappointed with their GCSE results to join the army.

In response to the news, Symon Hill of the Peace Pledge Union (PPU) said:

"To attempt to recruit 16-year-olds who are disappointed with their GCSE results is to target young people who may be at their lowest and most vulnerable. However, I'm not surprised: this is the sort of behaviour we can expect from the army.

"Armed forces deliberately target the most disadvantaged and vulnerable young people for recruitment and brutalise them through vicious training regimes so that they will do appalling things to other human beings. This is what armies do. This is what armies are.

"As we approach Armed Forces Day on 30th June, we will be invited to celebrate this foul institution. We must resist it instead."