The reasons for us having child employment law

The question as to why we have the law that prohibits the employment of the children younger than 13 (children) in commercial activities other than performance work such as those in modelling, acting and sporting events (non-performance employment) has been asked. In my opinion the answer to this is as follows: - There was and is evidence that shows the non-performance employment damages the children so that when they become adults they are substantially less able to contribute to the wellbeing of our society; - some people thought that the susceptibility of children to exploitation in the work place would prevent improvement of wages and working conditions; - it also appears that schools / government did not want to compete with employers for the time and effort of the children because they thought this would interfere with their ability to educate the children to grow up to be adults that maximised their contribute to the wellbeing of our society; - and yet having said all of this, I think the main reason for us having the law is that our compassion or empathy caused us to create it to protect children from harm (see http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/citizenship/struggle_democracy/childlabour.htm). In light of this, I think the main reason for not enforcing the above law might be the belief that this will not harm the children. Never the less, there is no evidence to show this is the case and there is evidence to show it does harm children. I think this necessitates that if the non-performance employment of the children is to be allowed it must be legalized in a way that ensures the children are protect from the harm that it would or might otherwise cause them, or it should be absolutely prohibited as our law currently requires it to be. I think this is required by section 2A of our Children Act 2004 because this section compels our Children’s Commissioners to enforce Article 32 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child that prohibits child employment that interferes with the moral and social development of children. This is due to the fact that allowing non-performance employment of children without legalizing it would be such interference because it causes children to believe it is alright for them be illegally exploited (see https://www.facebook.com/stoptheindustrialisedabuseofchildren/).