5 ms·

>Leaked documents show children as young as 16 recruited by Amazon supplier Foxconn work gruelling and illegal hours 16 is a legal age to work in many places o

• Cenk 7y ago
  Are they in school?
  • inxdz 7y ago
    That's what happens with manipulative things, they don't necessarily have to be wrong, but they are still manipulative. Go to Google Images, search for "schoolchildren", and tell me if any of those children look 16.
  • seanmcdirmid 7y ago
    They are in a trade school, the work was setup by the school (and was probably “required”) as is common practice in China (whether that is a moral thing or not).
    • inxdz 7y ago
      Which is also legal in some places of Europe, it's called "practicing" or whatever.
      • seanmcdirmid 7y ago
        I think the system in Europe is more about practicing skilled trade than just doing unskilled factory work. If this story was about kids apprenticing to be plumbers, then I think there would be much less outrage.
        • dragonelite 7y ago
          Depends on the course, same practical internship are pretty much of the level of unskilled work. Still not okay without at least a decent pay if you ask me.
          • seanmcdirmid 7y ago
            I don’t think 16 and a half kuai is very decent, but these kids are mostly from rural areas so it might seem like a good deal to them.
        • tluyben2 7y ago
          I do not know how it is now, but when I worked with companies doing apprenticeships for electricians in the Netherlands a while ago, I noticed most of them (the “children”) did unskilled or no work at all and did not care because the company signed off on their work so they would graduate.
• rayiner 7y ago
  It’s newspeak. They’re “children” if you’re talking about work or being held responsible for their actions. They’re “independent young adults” if you’re talking about sex, drugs, or freedom to make bad and expensive life decisions.
• Throwaway_8545 7y ago
  From what I have gathered, it is pretty normal in America/English to call 16 years old "children" (although Guardian is from the UK), in contrast to Germany/German, where apparently they normally wouldn't be called "Kinder" but "Jugendliche". So maybe it is just a linguistic or cultural difference to your country. Edit: I think it is also a method to differentiate K-12 schools from higher education. Although "college kids" does also appear to be used often in America (don't know about the UK). I am not sure whether "kid" and "child" can refer to different age groups.
  • kerng 7y ago
    Article should use the word teenager, not children - seems misleading. In many countries the legal age to work is 14 or 15.
    • rasz 7y ago
      This is also age of consent in many European countries.
• mobilemidget 7y ago
  More interesting in my opinion than stocking the shelves at the supermarket.