Child labour facts for kids
Child labour is when children are forced to work in jobs that are usually done by adults. This means they are involved in economic activities. The International Labour Organization (ILO) says this applies to people up to 15 years old. For dangerous jobs, it applies to those under 17.
Child labour is different from children doing light chores or helping their families. It stops children from going to school. It can also be harmful to their minds, bodies, and feelings. Child labour is against the law in most countries. Today, we often see young boys and girls working in tea stalls, restaurants, hotels, and small shops. Some even work in large factories, like brick factories. The main reason for child labour is poverty.
Contents
What is Child Labour?
Child labour means children are working in ways that:
- Stop them from having a normal childhood.
- Prevent them from going to school regularly.
- Are dangerous or harmful to them mentally, physically, socially, or morally.
Types of Work Children Do
There are two main types of work that young people might do:
- Acceptable Work: This is light or easy work. Children can do it while still being part of their family life. This kind of work can be done in addition to their education.
- Harmful Work: This work is difficult or physically tiring. It might be dangerous, or children may have to work for very long hours. Sometimes, they even have to wear humiliating clothing.
Where Child Labour Happens
Many people in Western countries have strong feelings against child labour. Often, news stories show working children as if they are slaves in a sweatshop in a developing country, making clothes. Or they might show street children in places like South America.
However, the truth is a bit different. Sweatshops exist all over the world, even in countries like the United States or Italy. The fact that children are working is often hidden. More than three-quarters of child labour happens in agriculture or in home-based family activities. Child slaves are actually a small part of the problem. Child labour also existed long before modern factories and global trade. These changes have only made it more visible.
Images for kids
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A Chinese child repairing shoes, late 19th century
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Child labour in Nigeria
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Children going to a 12-hour night shift in the United States (1908)
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Early 20th century witnessed many home-based enterprises involving child labour. An example is shown above from New York in 1912.
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A boy repairing a tire in Gambia
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Young girl working on a loom in Aït Benhaddou, Morocco, in May 2008
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Agriculture uses 70% of the world's child labour. Above, child worker on a rice farm in Vietnam.
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Child labour in a quarry, Ecuador
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Child labour in the former German colony of Kamerun, 1919
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Young street vendors in Benin
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Little girl carrying a lot of heavy items. Katanga region, DRC; Congo, Africa.
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Child labour in Brazil, leaving after collecting recyclables from a landfill.
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A little girl making money for her family by posing with a snake in a water village of Tonle Sap Lake
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Working girl in India
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Missouri Governor Joseph W. Folk inspecting child laborers in 1906 in an image drawn by journalist Marguerite Martyn
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The United States has passed a law that allows Amish children older than 14 to work in traditional wood enterprises with proper supervision.
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Child labour in Bangladesh
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Nepali girls working in brick factory
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Children engaged in diamond mining in Sierra Leone
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Working child in Ooty, India
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Child labour in a coal mine, United States, c. 1912. Photograph by Lewis Hine.
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Different forms of child labour in Central America, 1999
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Child labourers, Macon, Georgia, 1909
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Children working in home-based assembly operations in United States (1923).
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Two girls protesting child labour (by calling it child slavery) in the 1909 New York City Labor Day parade.
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Arthur Rothstein, Child Labor, Cranberry Bog, 1939. Brooklyn Museum
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See also
In Spanish: Explotación infantil para niños
