Most people believe children should be protected from dangerous work, but that wasn’t always the case. For centuries, it wasn’t strange for children to work alongside adults doing dangerous tasks in harsh conditions. That began to change in the 20th century, and in 1946, the United Nations established an agency for protecting children. While UNICEF at first focused on kids affected by WWII, its mandate expanded to protect all children. Over the years, the international community realized how serious child labor was. In 1992, the International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour was established. How is child labor defined? Where is it happening? In this article, we’ll answer these questions and many others.
#1. Organizations like UNICEF and the ILO define child labor
Child labor has a specific definition. Organizations like UNICEF, the United Nations agency for children’s rights, and The International Labour Organization (ILO) are two essential authorities on child labor and the protection of children. According to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, an international human rights treaty, kids deserve protection from economic exploitation and work that harms their physical health, mental health, and “spiritual, moral, or social” development. In Convention C182, the ILO defines the worst forms of child labor, which include trafficking, debt bondage, serfdom, forced labor, prostitution, and the use of kids in armed conflict. Defining child labor in precise terms is essential to ending it.
#2. 160 million kids are in child labor
Child labor can be hard to track, but organizations like the International Labour Organization and UNICEF give us a vague picture. Based on UNICEF data published in 2021, 160 million kids are in child labor. That’s an increase of 8.4 million children since 2017. Those numbers also mean that progress on ending child labor stalled for the first time in two decades. Why? The COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on economies played a role. Millions of people lost their jobs, schools closed, and households lost primary income earners to death or disability. Many governments failed to assist people experiencing poverty, and so out of desperation, poor families sent their kids to work. The ILO and UNICEF have yet to publish more recent estimates, so it remains to be seen if child labor has steadied, risen, or declined.
#3. Child labor happens everywhere, but rates are highest in Africa
Africa, which has almost 1.5 billion people, experiences some of the worst child labor rates in the world. According to UNICEF, more than 1 in 4 children from sub-Saharan between the ages of 5 and 17 are working. In West, Central, Eastern, and Southern Africa, the percentage is 26%. Despite policies that target child labor, progress has been slow. Between 2012-2016, child labor in sub-Saharan Africa went up. Around 61.4 million kids work in agriculture, the largest industry for child labor in Africa and around the world. Things aren’t great in Asia, either. About 12% of South Asian kids between 5 and 14 years old work in fields, mines, fisheries, factories, and other dangerous industries.
#4. Child labor has severe physical and emotional effects on kids
Children deserve safety, a good education, time to play, and other rights that help them develop physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. Child labor disrupts this development and can impact a child for the rest of their life. One literature review found that child labor can cause issues like malnutrition, illness, and emotional and behavioral disorders. Not getting an education has lifelong consequences, too. According to UNICEF, a lack of education makes it harder for people to find good-paying jobs, which keeps families in poverty and raises the risk of more kids participating in child labor.
#5. Child labor can be fatal
Child labor puts kids at risk for all kinds of injuries and diseases, but it can cost them their lives, too. Around 22,000 children die at work every year, according to the International Labour Organization. The true numbers are likely higher since a lot of child labor is hidden. Death tends to be an outcome of dangerous work. For example, in 2023, a 16-year-old died at a sawmill in Wisconsin, USA, while trying to unjam a machine. Another was killed at a Mississippi poultry plant where he got stuck in a piece of equipment. Working with such dangerous machines is a violation of the law, but around the world, child laborers are exposed to heavy tools, toxic chemicals, extreme heat, and other potentially fatal work conditions.
#6. Most child laborers work for their families
In popular media, child labor is often portrayed as the result of abductions and trafficking, and while that does happen, most child laborers work for family farms and businesses. According to UNICEF, 72% of child labor happens within families. That doesn’t make child labor any safer, however. Why are families putting their own children to work? The ILO says poverty is the “greatest single force” behind child labor. When the income earned from one or two parents isn’t enough to sustain a household or pay for other workers, kids are more likely to work at the expense of their education, safety, and development.
#7. Girls are more likely to be sexually exploited
Child labor affects children of all genders, but girls are more likely to experience sexual exploitation. According to research in the Lancet Child and Adolescent Health, gender norms put girls at a higher risk of trafficking and sexual exploitation compared to boys. This makes them vulnerable to unintended pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections, and HIV, all three of which cause serious health issues and even death. While most trafficked kids are girls, boys are sexually exploited, too. The numbers are likely much higher than reported. One study suggests it’s because boys are both less likely to identify sexual abuse and less likely to be viewed as “victims” by other people.
#8. Not all work done by children exploits them
Forcing children to miss school and work in dangerous environments is a clear violation of their rights, but is there any work that’s appropriate for kids? The International Labour Organization believes there is. Children and adolescents “above the minimum age of admission” can participate in work as long as it doesn’t harm their health, personal development, or education. Some work can even benefit children. For example, one study found that work programs for Black youth from rural communities helped kids access more local resources, develop valuable skills, and find more employment opportunities. Creating more paid opportunities for teens can also narrow wage gaps in the future. A child’s age, how many hours they work, the type of work, and work conditions are key when determining whether work is good for kids or exploitative.
#9. Child labor is a major issue in the cocoa industry
By 2029, the cocoa and chocolate industry is expected to hit USD 63.58 billion, according to Market Data Forecast. Billions of people enjoy chocolate, but 70% of the world’s cocoa comes from Ghana and the Ivory Coast where child laborers work in brutal conditions. In 2020, around 2.1 million kids (some as young as 5 years old) worked up to 14 hours every day using dangerous tools like chainsaws and machetes. Around 30% of these kids weren’t in school. While countries like the Ivory Coast are trying to combat child labor, millions of family farms still rely on children because they have no money to pay other workers. According to one report (which did not include rates of forced labor or slavery), 78% of “economically active” kids in Ghana and the Ivory Coast worked for their families. Addressing poverty is key to ending this type of child labor.
#10. The fashion industry has some of the worst child labor
The fashion industry depends on fields, factories, and labor. Many of those workers are children. According to UNICEF, more than 100 million kids are affected by the garment and footwear industry, which means they’re either workers, the children of workers, or they live near farms and factories. The cotton industry is especially harmful to kids. In at least six of the seven top cotton producers, you can find children hand-picking cotton, being exposed to pesticides, being beaten, and experiencing other hardships. Some places have taken action. In Uzbekistan, around 2 million people are recruited every year to harvest cotton. In the past, children as young as nine were forced to work. Thanks to reforms, systemic forced labor and child labor were eradicated in the 2021 production cycle.
#11. Economic competition can encourage child labor
Businesses compete with each other to make the most money, and if left to their own devices, many companies exploit workers to grasp as much profit as possible. To companies consumed with greed, child labor can be appealing. As the Borgen Project describes, competition in China has led companies to seek out children who are paid less (if at all) and who are easy to manipulate. Employment agencies may trick or even abduct kids, especially from families experiencing poverty. While China has made some progress in eliminating child labor, kids from rural areas are still vulnerable to businesses eager for cheap labor.
#12. Child labor is used to produce fruit, coffee, and fish
Children work in industries all over the world, which means millions of people use products touched by child workers as young as five years old. The Bureau of International Labor Affairs, which is a US agency, keeps a list of products likely to be made with forced or child labor. It includes fruit like acai berries from Brazil, blueberries, bananas, and citrus. Coffee from several South American and African countries is also on the list. Child labor is prevalent in the fishing sector, as well. According to the list, kids are fishing in Brazil, China, Ghana, and several other countries.
#13. Child labor powers some of our most common technologies
Without cobalt, we couldn’t make the lithium-ion batteries that power cell phones, laptops, tools, and electric vehicles. 75% of the world’s cobalt is dug up in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where Chinese companies control around 80% of the supply. Mines exploit at least 25,000 children, although true numbers are likely much higher. In Cobalt Red: How the Blood of Congo Powers Our Lives, author Siddharth Kara describes meeting a 16-year-old miner whose cobalt earned him only $2 per sack. In 2018, the boy fell while climbing from a 19-foot pit. His family drained their savings to pay for medical treatment, but they had to bring him home before he was healed. Another 16-year-old was hit in the head with a rock, and his hands were permanently damaged. If you own a cell phone, laptop, or any device with a lithium-ion battery, there’s a very high chance a child laborer has touched it.
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