Child Labour Discipline

Child labour is much worse than it is portrayed by the media. Child labour includes the employment of children in the business, food, clothing industries that is considered to be illicit or exploitative (Bonnet, 2017). It denies children their basic rights such as protection and freedom from exploitation. Children, instead of going to school, work in dangerous and physically damaging work due to limited access to resources. Reliable statistics are scare as child labour continues to grow each day in third world countries such as Africa. An abundance of evidence supports the idea that child slavery still exists in modern societies, where an estimation of 218 million children between 5 and 17 years are affected by slavery around the world (ILO,

Thesis statement: Child labor nowadays is considered to be a social injustice due to its harmful effects on the personal and psychological life of the child where the kinds of work offered to the child increases the amount of these effects regarding the solutions.

When declaring independence in 1776, colonists on the American eastern seaboard were finally free from the irrational and decaying power of their mother country Great Britain. Using life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness as the foundation of their newly founded country, they experienced massive floods of immigrants in the 19th century. Consequently, America’s inhabitants were eager to progress with a fair political system, a non-autocratic society and most importantly, an economic powerhouse. With this motive, industrialism stimulated the economy, giving the nation a reputable, global name. However, under the severe hegemony of industrialism, optimistic immigrants and lower-class families became the source of labor. Most shocking to Americans

Back in 1916, America brought on several new changes to running a business that affected not only the business owners, but the workers as well. President Woodrow Wilson signed the Federal Trade Commission Act in 1914 that better regulated what businesses could do behind closed doors and prevented false advertising (Progressive Era, slide 28). This made things more fair between businesses and did not seem to be too far reaching for the government in my opinion, but when he got involved with child labor laws without considering the whole picture, I think he took a step too far.

It has been found in the 1900 census that more than 1,750,000 children from 10-16 were working for pay in the United States (Derickson 485). There were another 250,000 workers who were under the age of 10 (Derickson 486). Many historian suspect that the number of child workers was even higher then what is known. This is because there was a tendency to record false information or to not record any information at all (Derickson 486). Many child workers were members of immigrant families who worked in shops making toys, and clothes. In the mountains of West Virginia and Kentucky where coal mining is an important part of the economy. Men would bring their sons with them to the coal processing mills when they were as young as 6 (Derickson 486)

“ Worldwide, there are an estimated 246 million children engaged in child labour. Some 180 million children aged 5–17 (or 73 percent of all child labourers) are believed to be engaged in the worst forms of child labour, including working in hazardous conditions such as in mines and with dangerous machinery. Of these children, 5.7 million are forced into debt bondage or other forms of slavery, 1.8 million are forced into prostitution or pornography and 600,000 are engaged in other illicit activities.”

The Industrial Revolution was a very gloomy time period. There were many horrible things going on at this time. One major thing was child labor. Child labor was happening everywhere. Also the dangerous working conditions for the many workers and the long, tiring hours the people had to work in those harmful polluted factories.

Do you ever have to work? Do simple tasks or difficult tasks. When child labor was in America children had to work. They had many burdens and struggled with many tasks. In that period of America it was common for children to work. Now a days its illegal for children to work unless of a certain age. Child labor in the 20th century had many negative effects on America.

“Child Labor.” Eiu.edu. Accessed December 6,2015. http://www.eiu.edu/~eiutps/ newsletter_childlabor.php.

The United States of America has always been deeply ideologically split on the idea of child labor. On the one side, many people believe that children benefit from long hard hours at work because it prepares them for the real world unlike the ability of school. Along with the growth of the child, they also believe that it would create large economical growth throughout the nation. Among the many people that believe this are two of hour founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin and Abraham Lincoln. On the other side of the argument, many people feel that children are to innocent to work for these long hours. They also tend to express how school and learning is much more vital to the child than manual labor, for it will help them much more in the long run. For example, in U.S. Supreme Court Case, Prince v. Massachusetts, the court defended child labor laws based on these exact reasons. The question as to which of these opinions is more valid is still commonly contemplated to this very day. In my opinion, the child should not be forced to work if they would rather spend their time studying, however a child that wants to work should not be lawfully unable to do so.

Up until the 13th amendment, owning a slave had been just like owning any other piece of property. No one felt guilty about how the slaves were being mistreated. The 13th amendment was the first step in ending slavery in the United States, but no steps were taken to end slavery in other countries. Even though people believe that slavery no longer exists today, about 5.5 million children are still held captive in slavery (Anti- Slavery International 2012). Child slavery can come in many different forms.

Children are the outcome of two people’s love, and should be loved with the same burning love the parents have for eachother. Although labor through children has been seen in human history for years, spiking and shrinking through different time periods. Child labor risks are now rising across the world, especially in supply chain countries, according to a report from Maplecroft. This topic did not used to be of much controversy, as it was the norm. In the U.S today, child labor is rarely present, but in other countries it is much more prevalent than we think. Although there is probably not an immediate solution to this problem, people can make small changes in their daily lives to eventually fix this problem once and for all.

Quite often, when a person is informed about the statistics, stories or news concerning child labor, specifically in sweatshops, they are quick to express their concern over the rights of the children, the responsibility of the parents and employers, and the well-being and safety of the children. Specifically in the eyes of someone from a developed country, sweatshops and the child labor that takes place in them, seem primitive and are interpreted as simply a means by which companies can spend less money on employers. For a person who has experience poverty in a developing country, child labor in sweatshops are not so bad. In many parts of the world, in order for a whole family to survive, everyone must contribute. The ideals and structures

“Child Labour; the Effect on Child, Causes, and Remedies to the Revolving Menace,” defines child labor as referring to “children who miss their childhood and are not able to have the basic amenities which a child should have.” There are many different reasons and causes for child labor. For some countries, child labor is considered to be a cultural norm. From the time children are old enough to be taught a skill, they are often trained in that field and put to work in order to help provide for their families. Other times, it is the sheer exploitation of a family’s struggle and desperation that leads these children into the industry.

In the United States, child labor and sweatshops are illegal, and society frowns upon any business that exploits children in the production of goods. Though most would say that they would not support a company that uses child labor to produce its goods, almost everyone has, in fact, knowingly or unknowingly, supported these businesses in one way or another. Children are involved in the production of many of the everyday goods we import from overseas, including the manufacturing of clothes, shoes, toys, and sporting equipment, the farming of cocoa, cotton, sugarcane, and bananas, and the mining of coal, diamonds, and gold (The U.S. Dept. of Labor). Often, we are blinded to this fact.