13 Products Most Likely To Made By Child Or Forced Labor (PHOTOS)

Some of our most basic purchases are produced by children. Though hard data is scant, it's estimated that there are 115 million children worldwide in forced labor.

There are some 128 goods among the products that most commonly use child labor, according to newly updated data from the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). The broad definition of exploitive labor by underage workers used by the DOL includes "slavery or practices similar to slavery, the sale or trafficking of children, debt bondage or serfdom; the forcible recruitment of children for use in armed conflict; the commercial sexual exploitation of children; the involvement of children in drug trafficking; and work that is likely to harm children's health, safety, or morals."

The vast majority of the explotiive labor done by children is in agriculture (60 percent), followed by services (26 percent), and industry (7 percent), according to the DOL. But some industries are definitely worse than others.

We sifted through the latest report from the DOL's "List Of Goods Produced By Child Labor or Forced Labor" to find some of the most common products that are manufactured or harvested using these deplorable practices. We ranked each product by the number of countries that use child or forced labor to produce each good. While this is not a scientific ranking, these products represent some of the industries and goods and that the government has identified as having the highest rates of child labor.

Check out the list below and find out which countries are the worst offenders:

1 of 13

#13 Carpets

1 of 14

First Slide

Previous Slide

@

According to the Department of Labor, carpet is produced in 5 countries by child labor or forced labor. The countries include: Afghanistan, India, Iran, Nepal and Pakistan.

10 Fast Food Inventions That Completely Blew Our Minds

People Who Hate The Minimum Wage

America's Biggest Fast Food Chains

How The Workplace Hasnt Changed Since The Mad Men Era

High Calorie Chain Meals

11 Professions Less Trusted Than Bankers

According to the Department of Labor, carpet is produced in 5 countries by child labor or forced labor. The countries include: Afghanistan, India, Iran, Nepal and Pakistan.

comments(1662)

featured comment

Reply | Share

Debbie McPherson said on 18 Saturday 2010 pm31 12:49 pm: Athenas   I agree - we need to be promoting American made products everywhere so people can make that choice - even if it is a little more expensive it is better for all Americans to buy American made products - just buy less.   I google american made - whatever I am looking to buy - and you can shop on line, there's alot of great made in USA products our there - I wish there was a centralized source of all USA manufacturing and where to buy that would be easily made available to all Americans - for now I just google.   Products I bought this year Made in USA   jeans dinnerware (be careful because some big names come up under made in USA and like Phalzcraft and when I called to question them they admitted all production was moved to China - they claimed it was an old website (lie) I was on. shirts socks flashlights mugs plastic cups (with no BPA and a lifetime guarantee) boots   the point is seek it out and when you're in a store and you can't find USA made - talk to the manager and at least let them know that is what you want to buy   also beware of some imports that you might be buying without even knowing - like food products and perscription drugs and vitamins   I called GNC and questioned them on their products - most amde in USA but a couple -like fish oil made in China - no way!!!

Total comments: 1662 | Post a Comment

1 of 14

Rate This Slide

Rank #2  |  Average: 4

I'm Not Concerned A Major Issue

• 
  1
• 
  2
• 
  3
• 
  4
• 
  5
• 
  6
• 
  7
• 
  8
• 
  9
• 
  10

Worst Products Often Made By Child Labor

loading...

Worst Products Often Made By Child Labor

UserName

 | Become a fan

Picked These as the Top 5 Slides in the Slideshow

loading...

Top User Slides

← Prev|Next →

 | Become a fan

Picked These as the Top 5 Slides in the Slideshow

loading...

Users who voted on this slide

← Prev|Next →

loading...

Comments

[412RichW]

12:52 PM on 01/23/2011

Have to add, that's a poor photo choice to accompany coffee. It's fairly obvious from the photo that the cappuccino being poured is from a top-quality shop. The streams are great, the color is spot on and they're using two shots in a properly sized six-ounce tulip cup. The kinds of shops who pour those kinds of drinks routinely source direct trade or otherwise ethically-sourced, traceable coffees. A bad shop would never do two shots in a cappuccino. A photo of a glass carafe of staling drip coffee on a Bunn hot plate would've been much more apropos here given the context, because that's how most of us encounter the C-market coffees described in the article.

[412RichW]

12:45 PM on 01/23/2011

I'd argue on the cocoa/Ghana. IvoryCoast, definitely. The others countries have had issues in some areas. But not Ghana. Wonder who's studies and what definitions they're using to state this case since Ghana cocoa farms are primarily smallholder family plots. Having your own kid help in the harvest isn't the same as forced child labor/slavery.

[she343]

12:52 PM on 01/22/2011

how many kids work in US fields picking lettace etc. or is farm work still exempt from discussion?

[jgourlay]

12:19 PM on 01/05/2011

I wonder if there isn't a little smidge of cultural imperialism going on here. Maybe for many of these children, working to help feed the family is their best option? Not the best of options we would LIKE for them to have, but the best they do have?

[jgourlay]

12:18 PM on 01/05/2011

I don't know where that tobacco picture was taken, but somebody needs to come to the South to get some schooling. Most pathetic looking 'baccy plants I've ever seen.

[Doreen1960]

01:59 PM on 01/03/2011

Gold the very product Beck hawks...

[keef00]

07:33 PM on 12/27/2010

Perhaps many American, Australian and European companies have created this situation by investing in these coutries to get items of clothing etc. manufactured using cheap child labor.

[jgourlay]

12:17 PM on 01/05/2011

WRT to carpets, the finest carpets can only be produced by the smallest of fingers.

[Msquad99]

03:38 PM on 12/27/2010

Small article seen last week. High rise garment factory fire in a Bangladesh. The Triangle Shirt Waste fire of the early 20th century all over again. This was not widely reported in American news media. Same conditions as Triangle Shirt Waste, high rise sweat shop with locked exits, women and children as laborers.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AS_BANGLADESH_FACTORY_FIRE?SITE=NYPLA&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

[Donald Shaffer]

03:55 PM on 12/22/2010

Thankyou so much for this enlightening article. Everyone should be focusing on not supporting products and industries that use child labour.

[Dan Altimus]

08:36 AM on 12/22/2010

Great input but instead of just talking about it why don't some of our computer genius younger people start a mass movement. Reach out to all business, store front and internet and start compiling a list of services and goods MADE IN THE GOOD OLD USA. Maybe Huffington could serve as the clearing house. If everyone concerned about this huge problem became involved it would sure be a good start. I think businesses would soon realize people do wand USA made and would start dealing with that reality

[Ron Willison]

10:16 PM on 12/21/2010

This is "Pandora's Box" Forced child labor is wrong. However having just returned from Thailand and Cambodia I'd like to share a few observations I think noteworthy. In non western civilizations and many third world countries they have to ascribe to a different mindset than we here in the west. Over there the motto "he who works, get to eat" is a necessity. Not a choice. The downside of that is many parents find it difficult to make sure their children get the schooling they need that would help raise their country from third world status. The upside for them is that. Those children have a better understanding of the world at large and life in general. They are likely to fair much better than ours when the currant fiat money system stop's flopping around on the ground in it's death throws, and somebody finally sticks a fork in it. The street urchins selling trinkets on the street understand the barter system. They will do just fine.
While there touring the Angkor Wat temples with my daughter. I noticed something else. No matter how poor the neighborhood was, The family unit was strong. I did not see one disrespectful temper tantrum. Not one argument among the teens. No fights. No drunken loud mouths. What I did see was a happy, caring, and forgiving peoples. Here in the US Two adults and three toddler's on a Honda 90 will get you arrested for child endangerment. There, it's a way of life.

[xnumber11x]

08:52 AM on 12/21/2010

someone says that we should buy products that are made in america. unfortunatly there is no law in place to label whether the product is made in jail in america. so its a lovely thought. but many of the products that are 'made in america' are made in jail which in my opinion amounts to slavery. in light of racial profiling and how the majority of inmates are african americans or aboriginals this is even worse. in fact products that are made in jail are in fact cheaper than those made in the 'developing countries' [sic] because of lower costs for shipping. and it encourages the private prisons to expand and to lock up as many slaves as we can because there are huge profits to be made.
http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/gilmoreprisonslavery.html
http://www.albionmonitor.com/free/prisonjointventures.html
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=853

[JPalka]

07:37 AM on 12/21/2010

Maybe they should be forced to put it on the label. Like ingredients: "may contain child labor"

[Lila Milam-Kast]

04:08 AM on 12/21/2010

I'm not condoning child labor when I say this but I do want to note that these are all third-world countries where if the child doesn't work the child likely doesn't eat because there's nothing to eat. I'd also like to note that here in America we also commonly worked children of all classes well up into the 1950s when the economy became so good that it became possible to support a family on one or two incomes. That's simply not possible in these other countries. It is too easy to say a child should be out playing and learning. These children are learning. They're learning to survive in a world with a birth rate is far too high for them to live easily in. They're building muscles that may develope one day into something large enough to help them escape the tyranny of their over populated society. And if they they don't, they'll die out and more will replace them. It's a sad fact. The only thing that will end this cycle that I can see is the availability and use of birth control. But so far, they won't use what we and others have tried to provide.

[JPalka]

07:32 AM on 12/21/2010

China was in more than 3 lists

[diannaa]

01:32 AM on 12/22/2010

Muscles don't help you to escape from tyranny. A developed, educated, literate brain does. And these children aren't given that right.

[rfkolbe]

01:27 AM on 12/21/2010

----

I wonder if the number of children working is directly correlated to the level of education.
Thank you for this article. It brought a couple tears to my eyes.