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And that reason is? It is not like it is actually illegal as the law carves out sufficient exceptions to ensure that children are enabled to work.

• bluefirebrand 4y ago
  Because children lack the sufficient agency and maturity to advocate for themselves in the workplace, and therefore are historically (and in some parts of the world still are) an extremely exploited workforce. In short, it's illegal in order to protect children from abuse. And it's not just "think of the children" either. Children in the workflow are not on an equal footing with adults and are an easy target. As for the specific legal carve outs that you mention, those are generally crafted to ensure that children are very protected in the workplace, putting serious limitations on what their employers are allowed to ask them to do, the amount of hours and such. It also makes sure the parents are involved as an advocate for the child because again the child is not really mature enough to be their own advocate. Anyways, I think what you'll find is that many people who did work quite young don't actually think it was all that valuable. My girlfriend worked at a public library after school starting at 13. She enjoyed it but doesn't think it was that useful for her career. I started working in a call center at 14, and other than spending money it was kinda worthless to me. The kinds of work that kids can do is severely limited. Even a decade of experience doing it is not going to put them further ahead than high school and university.