Many factories across the world are still employing children to work before the legal age of 16. These children are forced to do hours of back-breaking work, and even quit school to work. Many are wondering if it is still okay to buy products that have been manufactured by children. The answer is absolutely not. It is not okay to buy products that have been manufactured using child labor. Buying these products is almost as if the customer is supporting child labor.
To start off, the children making these products are well underpaid. Several companies find it easier to employ children instead of adults and pay them less to save money. However, this is just not right, the children work just as hard and deserve to be paid just as much. In the article "Why Are Your Clothes so Cheap?" by Kristen Lewis it reads, "Many who dared to speak out for higher pay and safer working conditions were fired". This proves that children were forced to take the unfair payment and make it work. "American companies saved billions"(8). This once again shows that the children were being ripped off and that the companies were trying to save money by employing children. Buying products that children were not paid enough to make is plain cruel through the eyes of the kids.
Next, the kids are facing harsh, unhealthy working conditions. The work environment around that the children in is often dangerous and unclean. In the article "This Company is Employing Children?" written by Nadria Faulmuller"There is nothing else than to vehemently fight against work that goes along with gross abuse like forced labour, carrying heavy weights or any other activity putting a child's physical or mental well being in danger." (112). The children are clearly treated improperly when they are forced to work in dangerous situations."They are cobbling sneakers in hazy, smog-filled Chinese cities" says Lewis(6). This proves that the working conditions for these kids are unjust in the "hazy, smog-filled Chinese cities". Purchasing these products that these poor kids risking their lives to make is not right.
Finally, children working to make these products such as shoes, pants, and shirts are missing out on valuable school work. These young employees should be in school learning how to multiply, not learning how to sew a shoe together. "And that's when it hit Kalpona: she would never go back to school. Her old life was gone" (7). This proves that children forced to work in factories were deprived by a life full of potential. This girl was one of the thousands of kids who missed out on extremely important work in school.  "Hunched over her sewing machine in a noisy clothing factory in the country of Bangladesh 14-year-old Kalpona Akter struggled to keep her eyes open."(1). This is an example of an undergrad child being worked too hard, and one that should be in school learning how to support herself in the future.
Yes, it is true that children are easy to employ and are efficient in the work field but the, children are missing out on so many valuable experiences. Underrated children working to make products is cruel and unusual punishment. Supporting the products that a child could have died making is monstrous. Even popular brands like Nike employ children to do their dirty work."All these young woman and girls are working every day, giving their lives for a piece of clothing"(10). Children dying over a simple piece of clothing is a problem that needs to be fixed.
In conclusion, buying clothing manufactured by children is wrong for many different reasons. The kids are facing harsh working conditions, missing school, and being underpaid. Giving money to a product that employs children is wrong on many different levels. Supporting the product instead of fighting to make a change is unacceptable. Kids missing out on a life full of potential is the equivalent of supporting brands that employ children.