An Historical Analysis of Child Protection

Historically, children have been viewed as a vulnerable population, but not until recently and only in more economically and technologically developed nations has society's perception of that vulnerability more accurately aligned itself with children's actual level of vulnerability. This paper will analyze the evolution of children's rights according to T.H. Marshall's Citizenship Rights Paradigm. Primarily, the evolution of child labor will be analyzed; however, rights as a whole will also be studied, along with a brief mention of education. In his paradigm, Marshall states that "...as a society increases in complexity, technology, and wealth...rights progress from civil rights, to political rights, to social rights" (Ebert, 2008, 2). This paper will argue that Western society has progressed to the level of Political Rights, and that the primary reason children have been able to gain rights is because society has increased in technology and wealth, making child labor unnecessary for survival of society at large. As a side point, while society has the technological capability and wealth necessary to progress to the level of Social Rights, such a progression is unlikely.

While the increased availability of technology and wealth have made it possible for families to economically support themselves with one or two income sources, society could have decided to use children to further increase its productivity, rather than allowing children to play and enjoy life. Why did society decide to make this choice? One small part of the reason is that child labor offers a poor return on its investment. In today's complex society, having children perform simple routine tasks is a waste of time because now machines can perform those tasks. Additionally, more education and training is needed for people to perform the more complex tasks demanded by today's society. The main central timeless concept that seems to be apparent when examining the history of children's rights is the idea that children are vulnerable and unable to take care of themselves as well as adults. This idea existed at only a very primitive level and only in very wealthy families for thousands of years, but as society has gained in wealth, technology, and complexity children's rights has evolved to include increased education and delayed entrance into the labor force. Beginning with the Middle Ages, society noted the vulnerability of children, but was able to take only very minimal actions to support children due to the lack of available wealth and technology. Over the centuries and up to present times, society has identified more and more ways in which children are vulnerable, and has taken corresponding action to protect them. This paper will show that was possible because of the increasing technology, which led to increased wealth for families to the point where we presently are, and that is that most families in Western society can provide for all their economic needs and more without the help of children.

Beginning in the Middle Ages, literature on children is scarce at all levels, and what literature does exist primarily concerns children of wealthy upbringings. One reason this may have occurred was because children in the large poor classes were viewed as economic assets who could perform valuable work necessary for survival, while children of the nobility were not necessary for survival and had the leisure time available to pursue other endeavors. Instead, children of the nobility may have learned how to become merchants, politicians, trained to perform in duels, or perhaps they would learn some other political office. Education was something reserved primarily for the privileged upper class; perhaps a lucky few from the lower classes may have found a way of gaining an education or entrance into the upper class. Consequently, literature of this time period is written almost exclusively about children with wealthy upbringings, and connoisseurs of literature of this time period should be very cautious when making generalizations about the lives of all children.

One generalization that can be made, however, is that children were identified, in at least a minimal way, as a vulnerable population. "Oblation...remained a common way of providing for children" (Andrews et al., 2004, 73). Oblation was when parents, unable to provide for their children, gave their children to local monasteries, where they would spend their life serving God. In some cases, children may go on to live with a wealthier relative. Interestingly, I was able to find information on one form of public welfare. This was termed the "Order of the Humilati;" other places adapted similar practices and later on, the name. The first Humilati communities were near Milan, Italy in the 1170s. The Humilati communities provided for those who could not provide for themselves. They lived a humble, quiet, and plain life dedicated to the Catholic faith, and while they accepted parents and sometimes whole families, they put children as their first priority. "Omnis boni principium specified that adult[s]...with small, frail or sick children...were not to be accepted until the children had been provided for" (Andrews et al., 2004, 78). What is particularly notable about these communities, which thrived primarily on donations, is that they also accepted the parents, but only if they could be provided for as well. Children in these communities had some rights. The rights varied greatly by community; primarily, the communities would provide them with their physical needs; some would provide an inheritance. Children had the option to stay in the community for the duration of their lives, or they could leave some time between the ages of fourteen to eighteen, taking their inheritance with them. It should be understood that these communities were the exception to the rule; children at this time were expected to help on the farm, learn a trade, or pursue the positions and power that go with being part of the nobility. In general, survival was of primary importance, with rights being a generally distant afterthought. According to this research, children in general did not really have any rights as outlined by T.H. Marshall, but these Humilati communities at least began to reflect a minimal recognition of rights for children. However, in this time period, at least the very first seeds of Civil Rights, as outlined by T.H. Marshall, are being planted (Andrews et al., 2004).

The Colonial Period saw the first broad public acknowledgment of child protection. At first, this began in an informal sense; Hawes believes "...they had a recognized status that entitled them to such things as the necessities of life, a start in life, and freedom from excessive abuse" (1991, 1). He also thinks that the way society operated, which placed a much greater emphasis on a familial/communal lifestyle, helped to reduce the actual amount of abuse. People would keep tabs on what others were doing, and this helped to reduce privacy and isolation, and therefore, child abuse (Hawes, 1991).

Hawes also states that the doctrine of "parens patriae," which said "...the state is the ultimate parent of every child" was eminent at the time (1991, 2). This doctrine gave the state the power to remove children from the custody of the parents and put them in a more suitable home when necessary. The law, however, was somewhat ambivalent in that it provided for children's ultimate protection and punishment; the Body of Liberties, enacted in 1641 in colonial New England reflects this attitude:

If any child, or children, above sixteen years old, and of sufficient understanding, shall CURSE or SMITE their natural FATHER, or MOTHER, he or she shall be putt to death, unless it can be sufficiently testifyed that the Parents have been very unchristianly negligent in the education of such children: so provoked them by extreme and cruel correction, that they have been forced thereunto, to preserve themselves from death or maiming (capital letters appear in original document). (Hawes, 1991, 4).

While the act does threaten (threats were the common way of training children at the time) children with the punishment of death, it also allows the children to defend themselves, should they feel they were being maimed or possibly could have died (Hawes, 1991).

Aside from the first legal protection in America, Colonial America took especially good care of orphans, who generally attained that status due to the harsh living conditions of the times. New England orphans were place with the nearest blood relative and the Chesapeake region placed orphans in foster families. Foster families were a fairly unusual idea at the time, but Maryland gave jurisdiction to courts which allowed for the protection of foster children from child abuse, and helped them to retain a certain amount of inherited property. At the time, there certainly was some recognition for the idea that children needed some rights and protection by the legal system. Clearly, this demonstrates a step forward from the Middle Ages in terms of Civil Rights outlined by T.H. Marshall, although full "Civil Rights" are not granted to children at this point. Economically speaking, people are still having difficulty providing enough food to survive, but it seems they are able to produce enough to help out others in emergency situations. Not surprisingly, there is no great stride forward in Civil Rights. It seems that at this time the most important reason for an increase in children's rights is a more complex communal life style that enhances the survival of a society (Hawes, 1991).

The modernization and industrialization of the 1800's enabled a marked change in the lifestyles of youth. This time period saw an increase in the wealth of all people and the level of technology in general society, and not coincidentally, a gain in freedom for children. The following statement reflects the gain in wealth for the young: "The early phases of the capitalization of agriculture favored the young by increasing their earning power" (Gillis, 1974, 42). The increased earning power of industrialized society led to larger numbers, although not a majority of, children leaving home at around the age of sixteen to go work in factories in the city. Their newly-found and more independent lifestyle led to the formation of gangs and the more healthy custom of "promenading," or socializing in large groups until ten o'clock in the evening (Gillis, 1974, 62).

However, while youth did enjoy an increased sense of freedom, child mortality in general was relatively high, and the sacrifice of a child's life was viewed as necessary for larger society to sustain itself. In the 1830's, the English clergy recorded that a little more than three-fourths of all children could be expected to survive to the age of twenty. Philosophers of the time, including Jean Jacques Rousseau, calculated that investment in a young child's training was "...a relatively poor risk" (Gillis, 1974, 67).

As Western society continued to grow exponentially in wealth, technology, and complexity, children continued to gain rights, and a transition from theoretical and informal rights to state-protected rights began to occur. For example, children by the end of the nineteenth century lived with their parents for longer periods of time than earlier in the century, but they did so in order to gain a secondary education. However, the middle and upper class were the primary beneficiaries of this trend (Gillis, 1974).

This trend continued into the early twentieth century, although a new trend was beginning to emerge. Children were primarily kept in the workplace as valuable economic assets, but on the flip side of the coin, "...more and more young people were being removed from the labor market during their teen years" (Gillis, 1974, 134). This new attitude was due in large part to paradigm shifts regarding the views of childhood. Famous philosophers such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau and John Locke saw children as innocent or blank slates, rather than economic assets necessary for survival. While Rousseau's (1712-1778) and Locke's (1632-1704) ideas had been around for some time, society finally had accumulated enough wealth and technology from industrialization so that a certain amount of people could produce, while a certain amount were able to go to school and delay their entrance into the workforce. Not coincidentally, in 1902, the Education Act was passed in England, and this "...establish[ed] state support for secondary education" (Gillis, 1974, 143). By this time also, the United States was gaining the awareness necessary to begin change. An article written in The Waterloo Times-Tribune reflected the changing attitude towards childhood vulnerability and the importance of an education: "The ideal twentieth century teacher is one who is preparing the boys and girls in the schoolrooms of today for the big things of the future, teaching them to live greater lives; and fitting them to take advantage of the opportunities of tomorrow" (Meyerholtz qtd. in The Waterloo Times-Tribune, 1915, 1). Unsurprisingly, it was during the early twentieth century that America at large had passed legislation providing for compulsory elementary education, and the level of education that is required has increased along with the wealth and complexity of society to the point where it is today.

Also, as a result of this increased efficiency in production, the fight against child labor also gained momentum, and since children needed more education to become better producers later in life, this movement was fairly successful. At the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries,"...[C]hildren as young as seven worked sixteen hours a day in damp, poorly ventilated workplaces where corporal punishment was common" (Alaimo & Klug, 2002, 13-14). With the emerging view of childhood as a distinctly separate period and vulnerable time and a reduced societal dependence on child labor, reformers were able to gain state support and completely eliminate industrial child labor, which was probably the greatest accomplishment of the early child rights movement (Alaimo & Klug, 2002).

After the First World War, the protection of children extended to an international level. In 1924, the League of Nations adopted the Declaration of Geneva, a subsequent document to the Covenant of the League of Nations, which gave guidelines for the protection of children. After World War II, our contemporary view of children's rights began to take shape. The United Nations General Assembly's Declaration of the Rights of the Child guaranteed each child the right to a "happy childhood," and it was founded on the idea that children are dependent on adults for survival. This document goes on further to assert that each child has some level of individuality and autonomy. The 1989 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child goes into further detail regarding a child's autonomy, guaranteeing a child's right to free expression and association (Alaimo & Klug, 2002).

It should not come as a surprise that such changes occurred after World Wars I and II. Prior to World War I, both the state and federal governments had made numerous attempts at regulating child labor. Most attempts prior to and immediately after World War I proved unsuccessful because the provisions for enforcement were too weak in their consequences, or were found to be unconstitutional by a Supreme Court that believed in less government. Also, the regulations that did exist were not perceived as valid by society at large. Many families and companies would simply ignore the legislation, due in large part to the belief that child labor was needed to ensure economic survival. An article by an unidentified author in the Fort Wayne News was very concerned about child labor as it stated: "...the state child labor laws are not observed...that only a national remedy can stop this national evil" (1907, 10).

However, the Roaring Twenties and World War II greatly changed society's perception of the child labor market. What happened during these time periods? Simple, America's ability to produce exploded. Although child labor had not been eliminated yet at this point, it was brought to the attention of the world through the League of Nations' Declaration of Geneva.

Just prior to World War II, "...the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 prohibited the full-time employment of those 16 and under (with a few exemptions) and enacted a national minimum wage which made employing most children uneconomical

After World War II, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of the Child, which was more detailed in its outlining of rights for children than any previous document. For a variety of reasons at this point, the United States economy had recovered from the depression just previous to the war, and was now far and away the leading nation on the planet in all facets, including economically. This led to the children of our country now having more freedom available to them than ever before. While society could have used children to further enhance its economy, it held on to the more romantic notion of childhood as an innocent time in life where people were very vulnerable to the world around them, as this trend had already been cemented in society's mind for seventy-five years at this point.

The pinnacle of children's rights came about in 1989, which is just prior to the beginning of the current Information Age. In this year, the United Nations held a meeting to determine standards for worldwide children's rights, and this was called the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). The UNCRC established a document unparalleled in depth and complexity in an attempt to influence the domestic policy towards children's rights of various countries (Alaimo & Klug, 2002).

An analysis of the UNCRC's official conclusions on the rights of the child shows its unparalleled depth and complexity. The document includes a preamble, fifty-four articles, and is fifteen pages in length. This article, however, can take on infinite detail thereafter, as it is intended to ensure what it sees as the basic rights of all children in the world. The strong claims of the articles include:

States Parties shall respect and ensure the rights set forth in the present Convention to each child within their jurisdiction without discrimination of any kind...[s]tates Parties shall take all appropriate measures to ensure that the child is protected against all forms of discrimination or punishment (Convention on the Rights..., 1989, 2).

The rights which are asserted to children include:

"...Convention on the Rights..., 1989).

It should not come as a surprise that the UNCRC happened when it did. The Information Age has allowed society to produce more, while working the same amount of time or less. Computers have almost an infinite capability of increasing in power, and as they increase in power they can perform limitless more tasks that could otherwise be handled by unskilled workers, such as children. T.H. Marshall's paradigm view that society extends rights to previously disadvantaged groups, such as children, occurs as society has the wealth and complexity necessary to do so; the evidence seems to corroborate his view.

An analysis of the 2000 Report on the Youth Labor Force by the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows a noticeable decrease in terms of youth employment and average number of hours worked. The report surveys 50,000 American households, which gives it a pretty high likelihood of being representative of America in general. The statistics show that 30.3% of all persons aged fifteen to seventeen were employed from 1977-79. This number decreased slightly to 29.2% in 1987-89, and more significantly to 25.8% from 1996-98, which was when the Information Age was beginning to take hold. Also, all surveyed persons fifteen to seventeen worked 17.4 hours per week during school months in 1977-79 compared to 16.5 in 1987-89 and 16.5 in 1996-98. During summer months, these numbers decreased from 26.7 hours per week in 1977-79 to 24.7 in 1987-89 to 23.0 in 1996-98 (Barkume et al., 2000, 41-42). At this point in time, children have full civil rights, and some political rights. This has occurred primarily in Western industrialized nations. The current pinnacle of children's rights is the recommended ratification of the International Labor Organization's Convention 182 for the Worst Forms of Child Labor. This international meeting felt it best to take a strong stance against child labor.

Article 3 defines the worst forms of child labor as: (a) all forms of sale, trafficking, or slavery of a child; (b) use of child in child prostitution or pornography; (c) use of child in illicit activities, particularly in the production or trafficking of drugs; and (d) any work that is likely to harm the health, safety, or morals of children (106^th Congress..., 1999, 2).

Finally, the committee that met to make a decision as to whether or not to recommend the United States ratify this convention's proposal concluded "[i]t guarantees concrete results for the future. U.S. ratification is essential to establishing global scope of understanding the issue of child labor" (106^th Congress..., 1999, 46).

One general trend that can be traced that supports the idea that as society increases in wealth, so do the rights of previously disadvantaged groups, is the absolute increase in disposable income. According to the U.S. Census Bureau Statistic Abstract of the United States, "disposable personal income" was "$683" (amount of disposable income made in one year) in 1929, when this statistic was first being tracked; this figure more than doubled to "$1388" in 1950, almost quadrupled to "5,470" in 1975, and finally, increased to "$27,188" in 2002, the last year for which this statistic is available ("U.S. Census Bureau...", 2003, 62-63). The dollar figures are figured in terms of 1996 dollars, so therefore the figures can be compared to one another. The general trend to track from all of this is that the amount of income available to a person to spend on whatever he or she needs has increased exponentially over time, although the rate of that increase fluctuates from time to time. What has been able to occur as a result is that children have received increasing amounts of rights while disposable income has increased. Children are increasingly viewed as vulnerable, rather than as economic assets, and the knowledge they need in order to help our society to advance in complexity has increased.

National economic data were developed in response to the Great Depression, and prior to it, decisions about national policy were made on comparatively fragmented data. However, it seems logical to apply that same argument to society since the inception of history; disposable personal income increased in the past at an exponential rate and so did children's rights, but the gaps between advances in these areas were thousands of years, rather than decades. This supports T.H. Marshall's paradigm that as society increases in wealth, technology, and complexity so does its extension of rights to previously disadvantaged groups (U.S. Census Bureau, 2003).

The final point I would like to demonstrate is to compare the life of an average child in the United States to the life of an average child in agrarian and nomadic societies of Africa. Children cannot make major decisions themselves, but legal actions exist in countries affluent and technologically advanced enough to protect children. In Africa, where children are very necessary for economic survival in many areas, children still very much have the rights our children had in the late 1700's and early 1800's. They may be protected from abuse by neighbors or family who make it their business to know what is going on, but is there political legislation in place for general society to complain to the state to investigate allegations of child abuse? There may be in theory, but in reality much of Africa is still rural and isolated and difficult for government officials to access, not to mention that many governments in the region are unstable and corrupt. Government action, if available, is most likely only available on a limited basis to a limited group of people, which in reality, ends up giving children very limited power. In a continent with much less-developed technology, child labor is essential for agrarian or nomadic societies to sustain themselves. When comparing the wealth, technology, and complexity of these societies to ours, it becomes quite clear that a wealthier, more technologically advanced and complex society gives more rights to previously disadvantaged groups. This is a great demonstration of T.H. Marshall's theory.

In conclusion, I believe I have demonstrated convincing evidence suggesting that T.H. Marshall's paradigm is very true in the case of children. When one looks over a period of roughly the last thousand years, one can see that there have been drastic increases in wealth, technology, and complexity in society. Further, societies exist that are much farther along than others in the realms of wealth and technology, and when these societies are compared to wealthier and more complex ones, it becomes clear that children have many more rights in societies with more wealth and technology. Social rights are very unlikely to happen in America because people always want power, and Americans also believe in the ability of an individual to go from "rags to riches." Living in an individualistic society almost inherently means there will be inequality among the masses. Not having social rights is not necessarily a bad thing; it is good so long as the privileged do what they can to help maintain a certain quality of life for the masses, which improves as our wealth and technology improve. However, this can be a bad thing when the privileged exploit the masses and keep resources for themselves, and only one who is mentally deranged would argue that does not occur today. In general, however, children in America have attained the highest quality of life of all children in history, and as long as our wealth and technology continue to grow, children can expect to receive more rights and more protection from exploitation.

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