What is Child Labor?
Child labor is the use of children in industry of business, especially when illegal or considered inhumane. Children are forced to work in dangerous and sometimes life threatening work places, and are kept from attending school and getting educations.
These kids are sent into the work force, usually because their families are extremely poor, so they go to work on farms, in mines, fishing, and manufacturing places to help their families pay bills and to just continue living. Some kids go so far as to go into prostitution and drug dealing.
Child labor is a huge violation of our human rights. It usually violates a nation's minimum wage, puts children in physical, mental, or emotional danger, and keeps them from their schooling.
These kids are sent into the work force, usually because their families are extremely poor, so they go to work on farms, in mines, fishing, and manufacturing places to help their families pay bills and to just continue living. Some kids go so far as to go into prostitution and drug dealing.
Child labor is a huge violation of our human rights. It usually violates a nation's minimum wage, puts children in physical, mental, or emotional danger, and keeps them from their schooling.
Who is affected?
There is somewhere between 73 million children between ages 10 and 14 that work in businesses throughout the world, and 215 million children working worldwide between the ages of 5 and 17. There are about 114 million in Asia and the Pacific nations, 14 million in the Latin Americas, and about 65 million in Africa.
Why?
The reason for child labor is simple: poverty. Parent's couldn't afford to support every one in the family, so they sent their children out to work and bring home money for the family as well. It was a lot more severe in the 1800's and early 1900's than it is today, but it is still a problem. The first move against child labor, was in 1916, when Congress tried to pass its first Child Labor law, but the U.S. Supreme Court found it unconstitutional. Then in 1924, Congress made an amendment to just regulate child labor. In 1938, Congress finally passed the Fair Labor Standards Act, making it so that kids had to be 16 or older to work during school hours, 14 or older to have a job after school, and 18 or older to work in any type of hazardous place. But some don't follow these rules. Many immigrant workers bring their children with them when they go to work, and the farmers or bosses work the kids along with the parents, sometimes not paying them. In the U.S., the child labor rate is very low, as well as in Canada. They both have similar laws and regulations, as well as most other nations and countries, but 3rd world countries are poorer, so their citizens and residents must have their kids work in order to keep their families going.