Child Labour Is Wrong

21.4% of children are involved in child labor, with more than half working under hazardous conditions, such as the children working seventy six hour weeks under the Disney corporation. The international labor organization defines child labor as “work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity, and that is harmful to physical and mental development.” The implementation of child labor has several negative consequences, such as a detrimental economic effect and the question as to whether its application is moral. Child labor has both a negative effect on the economic standing of a family, and that of a nation. Corporations like Disney promote the exploitation of children for labor; therefore, companies should

The implementation of child labor by corporations may be considered immoral. Imorality is defined as relating to principles of right and wrong in behavior. People may argue that since individuals have different morals, child labor may not be considered immoral. However, due to the existence of objective moral values, this argument is invalid. Objective morals are seen exemplified through the work of Justin P. McBrayer, a philosophy professor who writes “...that the Representation Objection to moral perception fails”(McBrayer 5). This means that in a sense, the human population has similar morals. For example, we know that killing and harming people in morally wrong. If we know that harming children is wrong then as a society, we know that placing children in conditions where “some of them had developed skin rashes, while for some, layers of skin were "falling off"”(Hickman). should be considered immoral. For reasons previously presented, child labor should be considered immoral on an objective

For example, if a child labor deterrence act were to be put into place, such as the Child Labor Deterrence Act of 1993, the issue of child labor could be significantly reduced. The act would make products made by child laborers illegal to purchase. This would greatly decrease the about of children involved in child labor because of the lack of companies who will employ them. When these measures are put into place, the manipulation of children can be decreased or