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Child labor is told of
starting back in the late 19th century and early 20th century before and
during the Industrial Revolution. During the 1800's in London many
children worked sixteen hour days under horrific conditions. These
children were employed by the age of five and worked in a variety of
places including shipyards, nail factories, coal mines, and as
sweepers. (Ritchie
290)
Child labor also existed
in the United States as well. During the late 1800's many children
were employed as factory workers. There were some efforts to
restrict it, but the state laws were not in force the way they should
have been and so employers and parents worked there way around it.
By the 1830's laws prohibited children to work in factories yet child
labor continued in rural communities.
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Photos copyright
by Lewis W. Hine |
In 1904
National Child Labor was
organized and by 1938 Congress passed the Fair Labor Standards
Act banning employment of underage children. This was
declared constitutional in 1941 by the US Supreme Court. (Ritchie
292) Although
acts were passed in the United States to stop child labor that
was occurring in other countries the situation was quite
different.
Until the 1990's many governments
of developing countries did not admit that they even had child
labor within their economies. It was not until the end of
the 1990's that these countries finally admitted to the
employing of children. (Bachman
545) In 1992 the
International Labor Organization (ILO) launched a program called
the Elimination of Child Labor (IPEC) to explore the policies
and programs to reduce child labor in countries. (Bachman,
546) In 1999 the
ILO general assembly unanimously approved a new convention
calling for action against the "worst" forms of child
labor. The worst forms included: slavery, slavery
like work, prostitution, and forced work that endangers a
child's physical, mental, and moral well being. (Bachman,
548)
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