Child Labor
"What is it, and how can we stop it?"
What is Child Labor?
Child labor is a horrible act that is spreading throughout parts of most out South Central Asia and South East Asia. Child labor includes abuse of children, overworking in extreme conditions that a grown man can't even handle, sexual mistreation and traficking.
Is This a Happy Child?
Children younger than you are scarred for life because of where they are born, and the people that are around them. Its not their fault, yet, they feel like they messed up their whole life.
Who Uses Child Labor?
There are multiple industries that are very popular and that we still use today! This includes but is not limited to the Hershey's company, GAP, McDonald, and even APPLE!
Child Labor in the U.S.
Child Labor still exists today in the U.S. Kids our age still are forced to pick cotton, tobacco. I think that a reason why child labor is not great in the U.S., is because the U.S. is one of the most wealthiest countries in the world. Today, the poor are the ones that mostly have their children working because of where they live, and what money they make.
Child Labor Outside of the U.S.
Consider ourselves as very lucky children. We live in a place in where the government care about us and put our needs before theirs. Today, in the 21st century, the year of 2016, are kids throughout the world who are still overworked in extreme staggering conditions. They haul heavy bricks in the heat of over 100 degrees Fahrenheit, or our forced into sexual abuse that are way past the level of their little hearts and brains can handle. While some of you guys are sitting in class laughing, and talking these kids who are much younger than us are being forced to do labor most average men take as a burden! While they are hauling heavy bricks and logs while pouring down sweat and probably half are tears, some of us are getting out of running the last lap in Physical Education class! While we are sitting at the lunch table with our friends complaining about the amount of homework that our teachers give us, they would give anything to be in our spot! Absolutely anything. They would probably chop off their own hands to be in the spot that we are in. They don't even have warm houses and beautifully decorated rooms to live in, they don't have puppies or kittens to play with, they don't have caring parents who give up anything for us to be happy and place us under the sun, and they don't have sibling to play with, argue with, or share things with. And even if they do, they are separated and divided into different working categories based on their abilities. Their parents couldn't care less about their happiness, their health, and their protection. They make them work all day, prevent them from going to school, and day by day, they wake up to do it again, and again, and again, and again. These kids work in brutal places like hauling hay, making tools, and even working in coal mines and if they aren't killed over there, then they will be killed with life-long problems. While they are working in these conditions, they pick up diseases, and respiratory problems because of the dust, and polluted air that they practically live in!
Child Labor in the U.S.
Although the U.S is drastically decreasing and much less than other countries about 500,000 kids about the age of 12, 13, and 14 are worked in Tobacco fields. I remember passing miles and miles of cotton and Tobacco fields with my best friend to a world championship at North Carolina. We were just joking around in the car about if kids like us and even shorter were to be able to hide, we would just go in the tobacco fields and hide because they are so tall, and if we needed free tobacco, we could just pick tobacco off the plants, or drink the nicotine dripping off the leaves.
U.S. Child Labor Laws
The U.S. does not ban children from working, they just make sure that they work in a safe environment in which it does not affect their personal lives,, education, health, and happiness.
- Children or minors at the age of 16 and 17 cannot work before 6:30 am and 7:00 pm or 8 hours total per day.
- Minors cannot work in freezers, meat coolers, unload and load trucks, work with dangerous animals, spray paint, work in construction areas such as repairing roads, or working in mines, etc;
There are lots of laws that add up together to help keep the children of the U.S. safe while working.