Child labor is defined as “work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and dignity, and that is harmful to physical and mental development.”
Throughout recent history, there’s been a significant increase in child labor and it’s hurting the development of young children, it has denied them their right of being a child and taken many aspects of their life away.
Many popular companies have been getting shut down and/or sued due to breaking the child labor laws. Here are some, but not all, big companies that fall into this category: McDonald's, Microsoft and Crumble Cookie. These companies are depriving children of their potential and getting away with breaking the law.
Several locations of these companies have been recently shut down, while those just outside of the public eye continue to persevere. Because these companies are more secretive about their dealings, no one knows or sees who is doing the work, therefore there is no reason for anyone to believe that there are children working adult jobs.
With companies overworking children, it is also overstimulating them as well. It’s detrimental to their health, causing malnutrition, slow growth, behavioral and emotional disorders and exposes them to environments that no child should experience.
Even when children are working extended amounts of hours that are legal, they’re getting ripped off. So not only are they working more than adults, they aren’t getting compensated for it.
Statistics show that around 160 million children are being forced into child labor, with 79 million of them working in extremely hazardous conditions.
Children are victims of this abuse within retail, agriculture, food services, construction and recreation industries. This is a worldwide problem that needs to be solved before it continues to devalue the lives of even more children, sacrificing them by putting them through these problems at such a young age will just hurt them in the future.