Child Abuse: Child Labor in US - Essay Example

Child Abuse: Child Labor in US Child Abuse: Child Labor in US Child labor has manifested itself as one of the most exploitative forms of child abuse in recent decades. Child prostitution could presently be the worst form of child labor globally, which entails inducing children to perform sexual acts or offering them for sexual services in return of some compensation, which could be financial or otherwise (Edmonds & Pavcnik, 2005). Child labor is the employment of children still legally considered as minors into any work that deprives them of their childhood while hindering their regular attendance of school. Further, child labor is morally, socially, physically and mentally harmful. From this definition, child labor fits into the broader category of child abuse, which can be perceived as the psychological, sexual or physical neglect or maltreatment of children. However, there are legally accepted types of work in the United States (US) that can be done by minors without being considered as child labor. They include supervised training and the work of child artists. A study carried out by the International Labor Organization (ILO), intimates that there were more than 210 million working around the world in 2010, most of them full-time (Coursen-Neff, 2011). In the US, minors from the age of 12 can work legally on any farm with their parents’ permission. This paper will research on and discuss the historical development and current status of child labor, and its direct connection to child abuse in the US. Not all harm befalling children can be considered as child abuse. Rather, it is specifically harm that occurs as a consequence of deliberate human action. Its most essential attribute is that it is detrimental to their well-being and harmful to their development. The tragic feature of child abuse is when children’s trust is betrayed, contributing to their defective socialization skills (Edmonds & Pavcnik, 2005). Child labor exposes them to risks of physical injury, but the psychological negativities are perhaps the bigger problems that require close attention. When subjected to child labor, the cognitive and educational development of children is interrupted. Child abuse and particularly child labor is correlated with poverty and unemployment. Agriculture accounts for the most hazardous occupation children are exposed to in the US. Children work with toxic pesticides, heavy machinery, and sharp tools, climb tall ladders, haul heavy buckets or sacks, which expose them to sometimes fatal injuries. Over half of the child laborers who suffered work-related fatalities in 2010 in the US worked in industries of crop production (Coursen-Neff, 2011). This is complicated by the fact that the constitution makes agricultural jobs legally open to them in the US. The federal legal protection conspicuously excludes child farm workers. Although it states that children may be hired for farm work outside of school, the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act does not provide the minimum age at which children can work on small farms when their parents allow. Its general provisions are that children below 12 may not be hired for jobs other than agricultural ones, those from 12 to 16 may be employed within the limited hours in permitted occupations, and those between 16 and 18 are free to be employed in nonhazardous occupations and for unlimited hours (Edmonds & Pavcnik, 2005). However, these rules also feature some considerable and potentially problematic exceptions, such as employment into child acting, newspaper delivery and employment by parents. Such legal loopholes place the US in contravention of its international legal duties. States in the US also have their own laws that address the employment of children, but where they conflict with federal law, the one with more rigorous standards will automatically apply. Throughout the greater part of human history, children have always been apprentices and servants because, most importantly, of their ease to manage and the fewer wages they received as compared to adults. Youth rights in the US have a history dating back to the pre-19th century eras, with eight institutions existing for the sake of protecting children against abuse and neglect as early as 1800. However, the Industrial Revolution took the notion of child labor to new extremes. At the start of the 20th century, the year 1900 saw 18 percent of the entire American working population being made up of children below 16 years (Coursen-Neff, 2011). Most of them worked on farms and in sweatshops, factories, mills and mines. With the growing industrialization in the US, child laborers were hired by factory owners for varied tasks mostly in the textile mills. Majority of the families that lived in mill towns relied on the earnings of their children for a livelihood. The key problem was that the child laborers were underpaid and, therefore, to meet their families’ needs, had to work longer hours; mostly longer than their adult colleagues. To any child who would otherwise be in school at such times that they are working, that is a traumatizing situation. The dependence on living off children’s earnings was so rampant that activism dedicated to abolish child labor returned with renewed efforts in 1901 in the US. This was marked by the formation of the Juvenile Protective Association in 1901 and the National Child Labor Committee in 1904 (Rosenheim, Zimring & Tanenhaus, 2002). Although other organizations with similar objectives existed before 1904, most of them focused not only on children, but animals’ rights, as well. Then a 1909 conference in the White House on child abuse declared that children should not be subjected to abuse simply on grounds of poverty. With the backing of White House, the US Congress formed the Children’s Bureau in 1912 and for the first time, created a body that not only focused on disadvantaged children, but the entire child population. In a modern, 21st century perspective, issues with children’s rights in the US include child labor laws that encompass agricultural settings in which youths aged between 14 and 18 work full time routinely for half of the stipulated minimum wage (Coursen-Neff, 2011). It is true that the educational system and social class of a child must be considered in determining the psychological effects of child labor. However, it is also true that the effects are more pervasive when a negative feedback loop is initiated by the effects of child labor. The current labor market is unforgiving for persons without a sound educational background. In that sense, adults who worked as child laborers compromised their opportunities to find well paying jobs because of their lack of sufficient education. The first of the negative feedback begins when such adults, who worked as children rather than learn, are forced to continue working for the rest of their adulthood without real opportunities to improve their positions in the society (Coursen-Neff, 2011). Without the ability to enroll in solid education as children, the children of parents who also worked as child laborers are also unable to find well paying jobs. This means that they will also be forced into child labor at a young age just like their parents in order to support their families. Essentially, that ensures that the cycle of lack of education will continue haunting future generations. Forensic psychology has also revealed that the most likely citizens to break the law, regardless of age, are those living in poverty. It is such a national disgrace that the US must find means to end, either politically, regulatory or legally (Guggenheim, 2005). Congress must heed calls for tougher protection of child workers. In conclusion, working has more negative than positive effects on a child’s social development. They may help their parents in earning extra money for the family’s expenditure while gaining some basic work experience and, as a matter of fact, saving money for future education. This can be appreciated in countries like, for example, India, where they have little choice but engage up to 60 percent of children in child labor (Guggenheim, 2005). But, in countries like the US, the lifestyle is completely different and child labor can equate to robbing children of their childhood. Adolescents committed to work more than 20 hours in a week will most likely develop problematic social behaviors such as aggression and drug abuse. They are also likely to be poor performers in school or even drop out of the insufficient education they have so far acquired. In order to feel confident and thrive in the society, children need more positive and personal relationships with their peers and parents. On the contrary, when they spend long hours working, even on part-time jobs, it prevents them from developing proper relationships, and they end up as insecure adults who risk emotional problems. They experience depression due to isolation, preventing them from continuously developing healthy emotions in the growth process, with high chances of physical effects (Dessy, 2000). The high health risks they are exposed to makes them susceptible to developmental delays. Summarily, they are faced with exploitation in the form of long hours that attract low pay; safety and health risks; deterred education and future lives; drug dependency; malnutrition; and premature aging. With most of them coming from minority groups or disadvantaged families, and although rarely in recent years, abducted from their immediate families, they lack the fundamental protection a child needs (Rosenheim, Zimring & Tanenhaus, 2002). Their employers go to extreme measures to have absolute authority over them and make them invisible. References Coursen-Neff, Z. (2011). Child farm workers in the United States: A “worst from of child labor.” Retrieved from http://www.hrw.org/news/2011/11/17/child-farmworkers-united-states-worst-form-child-labor Dessy, S. (2000). A defense of compulsive measures against child labor. Journal of Development Economics 1(62), 261-275. Edmonds, E., & Pavcnik, N. (2005). Child Labor in the global economy. Journal of Economic Perspectives 19(1), 69-83. Guggenheim, M. (2005). Whats wrong with childrens rights. New York: Harvard University Press. Rosenheim, M., Zimring, F., & Tanenhaus, D. (2002). A century of juvenile justice. Chicago: University Of Chicago Press. Read More