Child Labor and education

A recent study looked into education and studying among child laborers in Colombia.  The results of the study were overwhelmingly negative, of the 27% of workers that are child laborers, nearly none of them attend school or even had time to study.  These findings were somewhat surprising due to the fact that Colombia has child labor laws preventing children from working until the age of 16 and even then only with parent permission, they also only allow children to work 6 hour days until they are 18. Another finding from the same study found that the average child laborer in Colombia was only nine years old.

A child working in a Bolivian mine
What will Colombia due to fix this? should they require children to stay in school? How can Colombia preven Children as young as nine and younger from working in such hazardous conditions?

Studying Child Labor

The U.S. government recently issued a grant to Tulane University in New Orleans to fund a three year study of child labor in Africa.  The grant more specifically is giving researchers money to study the Cocoa industry in western Africa, the two primary countries being Ghana and the Ivory coast. According to Tulane university the grant"will be used to measure trends in the worst forms of child labor in agriculture, including the cocoa sector in these countries"

http://www.ghanabusinessnews.com
Considering that these countries are plagued with child labor it is a good place to hold the studies, especially in the cocoa industry. Should the U.S. government be doing these studies? what will they find? where else should they fund these studies?

The benefits of Child Labor

Yes, it does sound crazy, but there actually is an upside to child labor.  Child laborer's in Latin America have been gathering support and creating unions in attempts to protect their rights to work, that's right the children themselves are advocating FOR child labor. They are working to make actual unions in hopes that they can get protection from the government as well as improved work conditions.  A Bolivian child labor advocacy group and union named Bolivia's Union of Child and Adolescent Workers backs about 15,000 workers under 18 and fights for their rights and protection. These groups believe that the problem is not that children are working, the problem is that children are being mistreated, overworked and under-payed. They believe that if child labor is regulated and has unions that it would be okay for children to work.

Image source: Time.com
The Bolivia's Union of Child and Adolescent Workers is not the only group of it type. Countries all over South America are following suit and creating organizations such as these. Why isn't this more prevelant in the news? Why don't we ever hear abhout the benefits of child labor? If the laborers themselves are advocating for their right to continue working, then who are we to stop them?

Synthesis & Plan

I have covered all sorts of different topics within child labor so far. I have looked at certain countries where it is most prevalent as well as industries and products that are commonly plagued by child labor. I have seen how child labor has been effecting the chocolate industry in recent times. I have also looked at something that we don't see often which is child labor law violations in america. Another curious topic within child labor that I have researched is the benefits of child labor and why some people are in support of it.

Child Labor isn't just overseas: Violations in America

A recent audit of Burger king franchises in Western Massachusetts has revealed that child labor isn't just a problem 4,000 miles away in a country you'll never get to see, its right here in America. MHC Services LLC, a company based in Massachusetts, owns and operates 7 Burger King Franchises, is the company in violation of labor laws. The laws violated include under aged employees working shift's later than the law allows, these laws were being violated at all seven of these franchises.  

Image source:Delish.com
MHC was very cooperative throughout the investigation of their restaurants. The seven franchises have been punished with a $50,000 fine as well as having to put rules in place in order to avoid further violations of this matter. How often does this happen in america? How can we ensure that it never happens again and that it isn't happening right now?

Source analysis:  This source is from a website called boston.com, which is one of the most visited websites in it's region. The article is also from only about a week ago, so it is still relevant.

Halloween and child labor, hand in hand

  Halloween has always been a scary holiday between the scary movies and storys of killers but now theres a whole new thing to fear, child labor.  Child labor is being used to grow and harvest the cocoa beans on the ivory coast of africa, where candy companies such as Nestle and Hersheys begin their choclate producing process.  This year alone around halloween americans spent an estimated 2.4 billion dollars on candy.

One of the aforementioned companies, Hershey's, is now facing legal action for their child labor law violations. Why are these companies allowed to use child labor overseas with such little restriction? How were these crimes able to be concealed fro m the public for so long? Something needs to  be done, luckily some companies agree, the company in charge of producing kit kat bar's has recently been commended for using only chocolate that has been produced legally and without child labor. How can we get othe companies to do so as well?

Source:http://theithacan.org/27273
Trustworthiness: this source appears to be trustworthy, it is a small newspaper operated in Ithica, New York. It's articles are well written and the website is regularly updated leading me to beleive that it's a trustworthy source.
This specific article was posted on Halloween of this year, so it is very recent

Foxconn, apple and child labor

The iPhone 5 recently released and with it news surfaced about a company with ties to apple called Foxconn. I'm sure you've heard of it by now but in case you haven't here's the low down, Foxconn supplies parts for the new iPhone however they treat their workers atrociously. Since they have begun investigations it has been found that Foxconn has suicide nets on its production buildings, workers often try to start riots, and of course child labor.                                                                                                                     Foxconn reportedly Employs nearly 1.2 million people in China. They have recently come out and said that they have been using child labor, and that they plan to clear the company of all under aged workers.  How is it that these large companies are able to get away with using child labor? Did apple know about this and if not how? Companies that try to use child labor need to be stopped and punished and right now that just isn't happening.

the new iPhone 5

Child Labor and its Products

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/18/child-labor-products_n_798601.html#s210975&title=5_Bricks

This article by the Huffington Post talks about some products that are the most produced using child labor.  Some of these products include, cocoa, coffee, gold and even bricks.  The article also talks about each country that the products are made from, some of the reoccurring countries behind China, India and a handful of African countries.  This also gives insight into what kind of labor the children are being forced into, with 60% of child labor being used to produce agricultural goods.
     This article gives me some insight on what kind of work the children are doing as well as what they are making and what countries are allowing this to happen. However this article doesn't call out any american companies on using these products being created using slave labor.

Why are some companies like Apple and Nike not prevented from using child labor?

I am passionate about this topic because it is a big issue that really needs to be solved, companies like these should no longer be allowed to abuse their workers and take advantage of child labor.
All I know about this topic is that people who work under these companies are being abused and I want to know why it is being allowed to happen.