According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), child labor deprives children of their childhood, potential, and dignity, and could be harmful to their physical and mental development.
The ILO also differentiates between ‘child labor’ and ‘child work,’ with the former emphasizing the burden and abuse placed on the child, the lack of time for school, play, or rest, as well as the absence of benefits and being “forced by circumstances or by coercive individuals to work.”
Meanwhile, child work is defined as appropriate to the child’s age and mental capabilities with the supervision of responsible and caring adults, limited hours, no hindrance to their school, play, or rest time, and must be voluntary. The work must also “serve as a vehicle for social advancement and improvement in the child’s quality of life.”
In the Philippine setting, there is a thin line between child labor and child work, especially among families engaged in farming or fishing where helping out in the “chores” is considered part of the children’s contribution to the family.
It is also quite common for the skills or the job to be passed on from the parents to their children and future generations. Many of these families do not realize the intergenerational child labor cycle that they perpetuate because their main concern is survival. While there are shifts in the mindsets over the decades, most children who choose to help out their families in the farm or at sea, sacrificing their education, may not see it as a form of abuse but as filial piety.
However, the worst form of child labor, according to the ILO, is the commercial sex exploitation of children. It noted that based on 2022 data, many minors between the ages of 12 and 17 have fallen victim to online sexual abuse and exploitation. Although some progress has been noted on that end, millions of children are still victimized and it remains a critical area where government must focus its efforts on.
Child labor is a complicated issue that goes beyond children. A government that wants to tackle it will need a holistic approach that entails radical change, especially in the mindset of poor families whose primary struggle is to survive. That is why any effort to address the problem must first tackle poverty in this country, which remains an issue even until now.*
