What is exploitation?

Child exploitation is a term which includes forced or dangerous labour. The term is used to refer to situations where children are abused- physically, verbally, or sexually- or when they are submitted to unsatisfactory conditions as part of their forced or voluntary employment. Many of the children who suffer from exploitation do so because they have no other choice. They may also have been forced into child labour, either in their own country or somewhere internationally. Child exploitation occurs all over the world, and for many different reasons. Some of the more dangerous forms of child exploitation occur outside of the UK- in developing countries in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa where labour is cheap and people do the jobs usually reserved for machines and factories.

Exploitation of Third World economies

The Third World is the economically underdeveloped countries of Asia, Africa, Oceania and Latin America, with common characteristics, such as poverty, high birth rates and economic dependence on the advanced countries.

These countries are poor and economically weak, so it is quite easy for the governments of developed countries to exploit them. Governments do this mainly in relation to multilateral trade agreements. Multinationals do this by making sure that the benefits of their operations in poor countries mainly go to their shareholders instead of the governments and people of the country. A multinational business is a business that has been participated in by more than two nations or government parties.

Key points about economic and social exploitation of children and young people are:

1) Many forms of child labour involve the economic exploitation of children and young people.

2) Commercial sexual exploitation of children and young people involves sexual abuse and payment of money to them or a third party.

3) Forms of commercial sexual exploitation include sex tourism involving children and child pornography. Early marriage is considered a form of sexual exploitation.
Many forms of child labour involve the economic exploitation of children and young people. For example, a study in Zambia revealed that the most common forms of child labour includes quarrying and stone crushing, work on the streets and work in commercial farms. Some people regard all child labour as exploitative.

Exploitation photo

Exploitation statistics

The World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF in the mid '90s estimated that the number of street children worldwide was 100 million.

According to UNICEF, there are about 25 million street children in Asia and an estimated 10 million in Africa (1998).

In Dhaka, Bangladesh, there are 10,000 girls living in the streets (World Vision).

UNICEF estimates that there are 16,000 street children in Vietnam.

The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates that 250 million children between the ages of five and fourteen work in developing countries.

Some fifty to sixty million children between the ages of five and eleven work in hazardous circumstances. In addition to traditional involvement in agricultural and domestic work, children are now involved in a whole range of extractive and manufacturing sectors, often in dangerous and exploitative conditions.

Of the world's 1.2 billion people living in poverty, more than 600 million are children (UNICEF: The State of the World's Children, 2000).