The United States, England, and most other Western countries have strict laws regarding child labor. But the United Nations estimates that worldwide one in six children under the age of fifteen—a total of 150 million children in all—works full time.
Charles Dickens wrote about nineteenth-century Victorian England, but many children around the world still live and work in conditions as bad as anything he described. They labor in hazardous conditions and are the targets of abuse and exploitation. Few of these children are able to go to school, and most will live their lives in poverty. International organizations are trying to help protect and educate child laborers but often run into indifference or resistance from governments, local authorities, and parents.