There are two types of child labor though. One is sending children down the mines, or using their ‘tiny nimble hands’ on looms, and the other is very traditional your kids help out on the farm.
Broad legislation like this tends to hurt the second type, and can make poverty worse.
When I worked in Asia it was normal for the kids to miss 4-5 days of school at rice planting season, and another week at harvest. This was smallholder stuff, but in a good season you sold the excess.
It’s a pretty complex issue especially when many commodities are primarily farmed by smallholders, then capitalized by corporations.
Even small production Fair trade chocolate almost certainly employed children. They were the kids of the farm owners.
Luxury perfumes linked to child labour, BBC finds (www.bbc.com)
Children have picked ingredients used by suppliers to two major beauty companies, the BBC can reveal....