What do you believe people should do in their childhood? Go to school, play, and have fun. Unfortunately there is a factor stopping innocent children from prospering in school, playing with friends, and having fun. That factor is child labour. Child labour is the employment of children in business, against their will or understanding. Child labour is never ok, and needs to be taken seriously and be abolished from society. Child labour causes numerous mental health problems, robs children from their childhood and future, and some work is hazardous and dangerous to children who participate in it.

Child labour is a terrible problem in any country, about 89 percent of child workers in the country are Saudis, according to a recent study conducted by the University of Qassim. Child labour does not just exhaust the children, but also has a huge negative impact on their mental health. Some examples of mental illnesses caused by child labour is premature ageing, malnutrition, depression, and drug dependency. Child labour also affects children’s communication skills, because due to the overload of work they do get enough time to spend time with friends, family, or their community. Teenagers who spend more than 20 hours per week working, have a higher risk of developing problematic social behaviors like drug abuse and aggression. Children who work will also suffer from isolation and depression, which will prevent them from continuing to develop healthy emotions as they grow older.

Most kids look forward to one thing, their future as adults. Will they be engineers, doctors, lawyers, teachers, explorers, entrepreneurs, politicians, or whatever they can dream of? There was an interview held by thegaurdian.com with a 14-year-old girl called Tiyamike, she explained the importance of school, and that if she wasn’t forced to work she would want to become a nurse. School is a very important aspect in a child’s life, it helps them grow, learn, improve, master skills, and get ready for the future. If a child is slaving away every day at a factory or farm, they will not gain any of these important life lessons, and they will not succeed or be able to achieve their dream or their dream career. In Saudi Arabia, a recent study shows that 1.54% of all children work instead of going to school.

Child labour does not only have a long term negative impact, but also has direct impact on children. There are some tasks children or forced to participate in that are hazardous and dangerous. Most work the children are assigned are done over long and tiring hours, with little or more breaks. They also do tasks in unhealthy and dangerous environments, such as construction sites or factories. Children also are forced to handle dangerous material, that may be too heavy or too risky for them. Sometimes the work is too menacing that results in a child being killed, or injured, or getting sick as a consequence of poor safety and health standards and working arrangements. It can result in permanent disability, ill health and psychological damage.

When society develops, so must we. We need to abolish old standards such as children working ,and give them the childhood and life they deserve. Child labour is unacceptable and should not be tolerated in any circumstances. They are children, the only truly innocent victims in our society. Children are our future, what our society will become. Are you honestly going to let these morbid people rob our society from our future!? I think not. Now it is up to you, people of our society, to stand up and end this intolerable issue, known as child labour.