WHO IS A "CHILD"? & WHO ARE CHILD LABORERS? AND HOW MANY ARE THERE?

WHO IS A "CHILD"?

International conventions define children as aged 18 and under.

Individual governments may define "child" according to different ages or other criteria.

"Child" and "childhood" are also defined differently by different cultures. A "child" is not necessarily delineated by a fixed age. Social scientists point out that children’s abilities and maturities vary so much that defining a child’s maturity by calendar age can be misleading. For a discussion, see Jo Boyden, Birgitta Ling, William Myers, "What Works for Working Children" (Stockholm: Radda Barnen and Unicef, 1998), pp 9-26.

WHO ARE CHILD LABORERS? AND HOW MANY ARE THERE?

In 2000, the ILO estimates, "246 million child workers aged 5 and 17 were involved in child labor, of which 171 million were involved in work that by its nature is hazardous to their safety, physical or mental health, and moral development. Moreover, some 8.4 million children were engaged in so-called 'unconditional' worst forms of child labor, which include forced and bonded labor, the use of children in armed conflict, trafficking in children and commercial sexual exploitation."

Unicef’s State of the World’s Children Report says only that although the exact number is not known, it is surely in the hundreds of millions.

More information about who child laborers are, where they live, and new statistics on the total number can be found on www.ilo.org; also, the US Dept. of Labor’s By The Sweat and Toil of Children, Vol. VI: An Economic Consideration of Child Labor.