Online Child Labour

As we talk about child rights and child protection on the Internet, a new word in this vocabulary has been developed, 'online child labour'. Although it is a set of words, I strongly believe it is coming down too fast. As the UN has always been fighting against child labour and other child exploitation practices, there is a possibility that no one had ever thought about child labour on the Internet.

In this week's cybersecurity course we have been intensively discussing child protection and it emerged that a number of minors have been used to perpetuate different cyberattacks either with their consent or unknowingly. A number of kids are now being used in online jobs and another good number of kids are looking for online jobs.

As we might note, most of the cyber regulations are not very clear about this topic and many children are doing work online under the sheath. Children have been used in online gaming, and other online job market since the situations are now becoming convenient for them to work online. The internet is becoming cheaper and more readily available, more mobile Internet devices are becoming available at even cheaper costs and the information about online jobs is also increasingly becoming available. All the key driving factors are now favouring online jobs for kids. The situation worsens in developing countries where the children even want the jobs because of the poor living conditions they have and the money is available. The report from UN shows that children are busy in jobs but no numbers are implicated for online jobs, meaning there are no details about this act.

From this situation, the kids are at times not paid or even paid less, some times used in dangerous acts like attacking different services.

It is on this note, that I would want to engage you. Do you think children are being used in 'online child labour' and no one has been following it? Is there some thing that can be done to stop the vice before it even escalates? Besides is it wrong to have kids working, moreover it is online!

Your view is badly wanted.