The article questions the concept of child volunteering, arguing it often translates into exploitation disguised as altruism. While laws protect children from exploitation in paid work, these protections vanish when it comes to unpaid volunteering. The article challenges the assumption that this unpaid engagement is inherently beneficial, highlighting the ethical concerns of asking minors to contribute time and energy without consent or regulation. It calls for a re-evaluation of how we categorize children’s unpaid efforts, suggesting that this may actually constitute unregulated child labor rather than genuine service.
Children may be called volunteers, but this often disguises unpaid labor that lacks proper protection and consent, raising serious ethical considerations about their involvement.
The expectation that children should engage in unpaid work ignores the legal protections we afford them regarding paid labor, essentially allowing exploitation to be cloaked as altruism.
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