Child Labour and Rights in the United Kingdom

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Relevant Data Regarding Child Labour and Abuse
What do the government do about it?
References

Introduction

Child protection has long been the concern of almost everybody. From child labor to child abuse, there are certainly different government and non-government agencies all over the world that support and are keenly watching the child’s rights and protection programs of every country.

In United Kingdom, there is a combined effort to prevent the increasing number of child abuse and child labour related cases. The government and policy makers have been trying to use the cases and programs in the neighbouring countries to create suitable and proper judicial laws and programs for the country.

Relevant Data Regarding Child Labour and Abuse

There are many forms of child abuse. The first of which is subjecting the child to unwarranted labour. It should be noted that children, on their very young age, should be using their time studying and or playing with other children of their age. However there are a good percentage of children who are found to be working like adults. More and more researches are done to find out whether children all over the world have been subjected to unjustifiable works. Below are two of the statistic results presented that are inline with this issue:

Table 1: Distribution of Economically Active Children under 15 Years of Age (percent of total world child abuse).

Region	1980	1985	1990
Africa	17.0	18.0	21.3
Americas	4.7	5.6	N/A
Asia	77.8	75.9	72.3
Europe	0.3	0.2	0.1
Oceania	0.2	0.2	0.2
Source: ILO 1993.

Table 2: Comparison of Labour Force Participation Rates of Children and Adults by Region (percent).

Region	15 years and over	10-14 years
Africa	65.2	22.0
Americas	61.8	7.9
Asia	68.1	15.3
Europe	54.5	0.3
Oceania	62.7	6.9
Source: ILO 1993.

The data shown above clearly implies that all over the world, child abuse is really imminent. Children are subjected to labour works that is not and should not be allowed. Children are facing harassment and brutalities instead of love and care. The data above is just on the continental perspective and looking closely as per each country, the numbers are more gripping.

Other forms of child abuse are violence, harassment and exploitation with which the children are the sole victims. Rapes, deaths, trauma and psychological instability are just some of the aftermaths of such kind of child abuse.

In the UK

The cases and reports of child abuse and/or child labour in the UK are astounding. Based on the recent statistics, it was reported that that at least one child die each week as caused by child abuse. This is the reason why the government is compelled to spend at least £1 billion a year. However, this financial resource is used mostly in dealing with the aftermath of abuse where in fact, the prevention programs should be dealt with too (Child Abuse, 2005.

Other related statistics to UK’s child abuse and/or child labour rate are (Child Abuse, 2005:

30,021 children were listed as part of the child protection program in 2001.
In 2005, 25,900 children were on child protection registers because of the risk they face on child abusers.
In 2002, 45% rates of rapes and attempted rapes reported in Wales and England were committed against children under 16.
In UK, an estimated number of 80-100 homicide cases each year is committed against children with ages from 0-16.
It was reported that there were approximately around 385,300 children in England were requiring some form of social service provision on 2005.
The number of internet child abuse in England and Wales rose from 549 to 2234 on the years 2001-2003.
Most of the child abusers are found to be closely related to the child being abused.

What do the government do about it?

It has then been concluded that government intervention is really a must. Enough funding on the child’s welfare, particularly on giving them the right for proper education, shelter, and food should be enhanced. Moreover, social workers, non-government organizations (NGO’s) are also there to assist the government in uplifting the lives of the many, hence the government can really work hand-in-hand with this groups.

Various activities are also encouraged to be initiated in highly youth-populated areas so that they may be given venues to enhance their skills in sports and to prevent them from going into abusive drugs and/or crimes.

In the UK alone, a vast range of laws and programs are being implemented to protect the children against child abuse. This is because the policymakers have found out that child abuse if not dealt properly will not stop and will cause more deviant issues, like what happened in the US and other neighbouring countries (Child Abuse, 2005.

Some examples of the programs implements dint he UK are the Infant Life Protection Act 1872 and Children Act 1889. The first is about protecting the children against too much work in farming while the second is aimed at imposing criminal sanctions to those who will be proven mistreating the children. However, since these ‘old’ laws have not been working successfully as planned, more laws and guidelines are now being studied (Child Abuse, 2005.

“…Modern arrangements for child protection are incorporated into a range of legislation and have undergone an intense period of review since 2001…” (Child Abuse, 2005).

Part of the improved laws and regulations is the Sexual Offences Act 2003 which aims to protect the children even on their most vulnerable times. This act was initiated because it was reported that more and more child abusers are now using different forms of technology to commit child abuse acts. Thus, the Sexual Offences Act 2003 also covers stricter laws and wide range of monitoring against sex offenders. This law also provides new lists of varied types of offences that can be made against the children plus the “harsher sentences for sexual offences against children and vulnerable people” (Child Abuse, 2005).

References

“Child Abuse” 2005. Web.

Crozier, William L. (1993). Lower Manhattan Project. Observations of Life in Lower Manhattan at the Turn of the Century. ILO (International Labor Office). Bulletin of Labor Statistics 1993-3. Geneva.

Lluncor, Ben. Gun Control In America. 2003. The Pen. Web.

Oberg, Cynthia G. 2000.”The Death Penalty – True Cause for Justice”. Web.

Savage, Charlie. 2004. “Supreme Court justices weigh limit on death penalty.” The Boston Globe. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

“Thoughts on the death penalty” 2004. Web.

The Economist. Home on the Range. 1994. Web.

Trattner, Walter (1970). Crusade for the Children: A History of the National Child abuse Committee and Child abuse Reform in America.

Treatment for Adolescent Depression. 2004. Web.

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