Are There Enough Laws to Protect Children?

Answer 1

we had a research about the child labor in the Philippine Setting.. i would like to share some of the laws we have here and the international laws we included in our research. if you visit the Philippines, you will not be able to notice the problem on child labor,and child trafficking.. but we have these 'street child laborers' who, at the age of 5-12 are already engaged in
different kinds of hard work. if you are a child labor advocate, please visit the Philippines.

i would like to share some parts of our research on child labor:

“They are everywhere but invisible, toiling as domestic servants in homes, laboring behind the walls of workshops/factories, hidden from view in sugarcane plantations, unsafe in the production of pyrotechnics, collecting garbage from households, risking their lives in the streets selling newspapers and cigarettes, hopping from one jeepney to another to wipe our shoes and beg for alms afterwards, experiencing malnutrition, can be seen asleep in the coldness of the earth provided with carton papers as their beds, paying their ancestors’ debts in some big haciendas, working for their families in the rice farm, diving for pearls in the ocean/seas of the archipelago, involved in mining and quarrying in some places, demoralized and prostituted at young age…


CHILD WORK VERSUS CHILD LABOR

Child work refers to the children’s participation in economic activity – that does not negatively affect their health and development or interferes with education, can be positive. Work that does not interfere with education (light work) is permitted from the age of 12 years under the International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention 138.

Child labor is more narrowly defined and refers to children working in contravention of the above standards. This means all children below 12 years old of age working in any economic activities, those aged 12 to 14 years engaged in harmful work, and all children engaged in the worst forms of child labor.

Worst forms of child labor involves children being enslaved, forcibly recruited, trafficked, forced into illegal activities and exposed to hazardous work.

CHILD LABOR IN THE PHILIPPINE SETTING

The Philippines is literally a young nation with a high percentage of young people in its overall population. And the child labor problem in the Philippines is a serious one.

According to the National Statistics Office survey, there are about 4 million working children in the country today.

Of the 4 million, 2.4 million are engaged in hazardous work, which means that they are exposed to chemical, physical and biological hazards. These are the children involved in the worst forms of child labor such as prostitution, domestic work, mining and quarrying, commercial agriculture, deep – sea fishing and pyrotechnics production.

The following are the more salient figures in the survey:

• Four out of 25 million children, ages 5 – 17, are working. This means that one out of 6 works
• Mostly male, elementary grader (between 10 – 17 years old), usually rural – based
• Region IV has the highest incidence of child labor (12.5%); next is region VI (11.8%); and Region XI (10.2%)
• Majority work as unskilled, unpaid, engaged in agriculture, on seasonal basis laborers
• One of four children work during night time
• 60% of working children, aged 5 – 17 years old are exposed to hazardous environment.
• 40% are elementary graduates; 32% reached high school; 3% never attended school
• 59% are unpaid, work in household – operated farm or business
• 53% in agriculture / forestry / hunting


LAWS ABOUT SPECIAL PROTECTION OF CHILDREN AGAINST CHILD ABUSE, EXPLOITATION AND DISCRIMINATION ACT


Children shall not be the object of attack and shall be entitled to special respect. They shall be protected from any form of threat, assault, torture or other cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment.

Shall recognize the vital role of the children in nation building and shall promote and promote and protect their physical, moral, spiritual, intellectual and social well-being.

Article VIII Section 12

The employer shall consider the following before having a child laborer in their welfare.
 A work permit from the Department of Labor and Employment.
 Ensure protection, health, safety, and morals of the child.
 Institute measures to prevent exploitation or discrimination taking into account the system and level of remuneration and the duration and arrangement of working time.
 Formulate and implement a continuous program for training and skill acquisition of the child.

R.A. #7610

Develop to provide special protection on children from all forms of abuse, neglect, cruelty, exploitation and discrimination and other prejudicial to their development. The State shall intervene on behalf of the child when the parent, guardian, teacher or person having cared and custody of.

It is to protect and rehabilitate children gravely threatened or enlargened by circumstances which affect or will affect their survival and normal development and over which they have no control.

R.A. #9231

Declared to provide special protection on children from all forms of abuse, neglect, cruelty, exploitation and discrimination and other prejudicial to their environment including child labor and its worst forms; provide sanctions for their commission and carry out a program for prevention and deterrence of and crisis intervention in situation of child abuse, exploitation and discrimination.

Exemption of employment for children below 15yrs. old
• Child works directly under the sole responsibility of their parents
• Parents permit their children to work in entertainment or information through cinema, television, radio, magazines, etc.
Hours of work of a working child:

• 15 years of age - maximum of 20 hours/wk
• 15 years but below 18 years – maximum of 40 hours/wk

Answer 2

I feel that there are enough laws in place to protect children. That matter shifts to how do we place into the heart and souls of adults the importance of the lives of the little ones. All the laws in the world cannot protect the child from the intents of some vile evil person. But if the minds and hearts of everyone and all can be changed to view the children as all so important, then we have something. If we can have a body of adults joined together believing that children are treasures and not sub humans, then we have something.
There are enough laws. Lets revisit who we are as a whole.

Answer 3

Well this is one question i have quite a bit of interest in..
I believe there is and there isnt enough laws.. It goes both ways..
In the first way, There is because when i was brought up we could fall and get a small bruise on our knee without it being questioned. But when this happened to my son my doctor did question it.. Yes i understand its his job, but its not like they were all over his body... I did get spanked and i learned my lesson.. We cant do this now because of certain laws.. No a parent should not beat their children at all - And i am firm on that - but a small spank on the butt and sending them to their room, i personally dont see anything wrong with it...
Now on the other hand.. The people that are beating their children, And even get reported dont get found out until their children are almost dead if not dead.. and there is too much of this going on.. And yes there is laws that they pass but what does the local law enforment do .. Not that much, When you look at schools around here, They are not there to watch the kids when they come out of school.. There should be more enforcement there..
This is where my concern is.. Its really a split case..
Deb :)

Answer 4

We have the laws. We don't have the enforcement. Prison sentences aren't long enough for rapists and child molesters. There is something wrong with a system that allows these people back on the street. They are incurable. There are not enough good foster homes for all the children that need them. To many are left in homes with parent/parents that are unfit because the children cannot be placed elsewhere. Sure we have the laws, now lets back them up.

Answer 5

in some cases no but it seems more people are aware of noticing when a child is being abused than the elderly there are definitely not enough laws to protect the aged. Working in an Alzheimer's nursing home I see the greatest cases of abuse by families you could ever want to see. We have strict rules in our facility if you see anything that you think might be abuse you send them home immediately till it is investigated and resolved. Ohio state law says you must report this within 24 hours. Sorry got off on a tangent again.

Answer 6

Children are vunerable to every crime imaginable and laws are miserably inadequate. If a helpless adult was taken to a remote location and left without resources or hope of rescue they'd be charged with intent to commit murder.
There is talk of returning the two babies left beside the dumpster to their parents if it was done under duress. The charges may only be neglect or abuse..
Go figure? It would help to enforce and correctly divide the laws we have in place.
Predators are played with by judges like the crime is of no consequence.
My heart is breaking for the suffering children of our country and the world
praying...Juju

Answer 7

How about banning MTV and near-pornographic advertisements on every TV, magazine and computer screen until kids are old enough to make their own decisions? How about taking all of the offensive movies out of the theatres? You know, the ones with people knee deep in blood? Those are great for kids. Sheesh. Perhaps if you had a healthy dose as a child, you would not say such things.

Answer 8

Seems so......but the laws are only as good as the enforcement behind them. Sometimes I think there's too many because they seem to have more rights than I do. I mean there was supposed to be some special benefits to growing up besides just 100% total responsibility. Wasn't there? Dad always told me when I grew up and got my own place then I could do what I wanted. I'm waiting. LOL Got more people telling me what to do than a kid does in one way or another.

Answer 9

No, more laws should be enacted. There also should be a service for parents that when the children overwhelm them that someone can take over for awhile and let the parents chill out. Too many angry parents and too many deaths of children...a very sad situation.
Thank heaven for John Walsh and his missing children act, at least now we can have an alert and try to find them.

Answer 10

There are plenty of laws protecting children, almost too many. The problem is these laws aren't international. The U.S. is pretty safe, maybe too safe, for kids.....but the same cannot be said for 75% of the world....

Answer 11

Unfortunately the ones children need to be protected the most from are their own parents!

silk-we actually have a place like there here called "The Christmas Box". It is where the kids go pre-foster care, but they also have a drop off service where you can leave your kids for up to 24 hours I think the limit is twice a month. No charge. Never used it myself-always had family nearby to offer respite.