What is child labor? Child labor is work that harms children or prevents them from attending school. Around the world and in the United States, the growing gap between rich and poor in recent decades has forced millions of children out of school and into the workforce. An estimated 215 million children between the ages of 5 and 17 currently work in conditions considered illegal, dangerous, or extremely exploitative.1 Underage children perform many different types of jobs, including commercial agriculture, fishing, manufacturing, and mining. mining, and domestic services. Some children were involved in illicit activities that included drug trafficking, prostitution, and other traumatic occupations that included serving as soldiers. Child labor poses a threat to the physical, mental or emotional well-being of children. It involved intolerable abuses, such as slavery, child trafficking, debt bondage, forced labor or illicit activities, and prevented children from going to school. History Behind Child Labor in the United States: Forms of labor included child slavery which has existed throughout American history. As industrialization moved workers from farms and home workshops to urban areas and factory work. Children were often preferred, because factory owners considered them more manageable, cheaper, and less likely to start a rebellion.2 Growing opposition to children in the North prompted many factories to move to the South. In the early 1900s, children states varied considerably in their implementation of child labor regulations.3 Child labor reached its peak in the nineteenth century. American children worked in large numbers in such places as mines, glass factories, textiles, agriculture, canneries, home industries, and as newsboys, messengers, shoe shiners, and street vendors... middle of the paper... they navigate crowded spaces of factories or mines where adults would not enter. Children were easier to manage and control and, above all, paid less than adults. Although child labor has been substantially eliminated, it continues to be a problem in some sectors of the economy. The United States has yet to eliminate all abuses and violations. The United States has served the purposes of child labor reform by helping to establish general laws and practices, and children should not be full-time workers like adults. This means that children should attend school programs to receive an education instead of working in dangerous areas and putting themselves in harm's way. I am grateful for the child labor reforms developed throughout history that have allowed me to not have to work in such harsh conditions. These reforms allow me to get an education to fight in today's society.