Before the 1950s and 1960s it was school children from low-income families who worked to help-out with the family finances, while their more affluent contemporaries focused on other things. Then the youth consumer market was born. Pressure to buy clothes, records and consumer goods built up and more affluent children flooded into the workplace under pressure from their peers and advertising companies. Their jobs were seen as character building, exposing youngsters to the work ethic and teaching them how to save and spend wisely. They were not seen as the "real" jobs that adults do to pay the rent and put food on the table.

But recent research shows that children are doing "real" jobs, exposing them to workplace dangers. They can be found working alongside adults in shops, hotels, kitchens, on farms and in street markets. They are just being paid less, often cash-in-hand, in an unregulated job market and without the confidence or life-skills to be able to recognise where a potential danger exists. And the health and safety regime has failed to keep pace with this shift in youth employment.

The last thing any parent who allows their child to take up part-time work expects is that their son or daughter is getting less protection than the adults working alongside them. This month EHJ reveals a need for a radical overhaul of current legislation protecting school-aged children in the workplace. The profession also needs to look at what it can do to protect this most vulnerable group under the Health and Safety at Work Act - a much more powerful tool than the Children and Young Persons Act 1933, which allows for limited fines and provides child employment officers with limited powers.

With enforcement of the law so weak, another area of risk is hours worked. Legally, children are limited to 12 hours a week during term time. But enforcement officers are regularly coming across cases, even with reputable companies, where these maximum hours are being exceeded. This could have long-term consequences. Children may fail exams because they are tired, or be enticed into the job market rather than going into further education.

This month is likely to see the publication of the Children's Bill, which aims to reform child protection following a public inquiry into the murder of eight-year-old Victoria ClimbiŽ. Last year the Licensing Act relaxed licensing laws, allowing children into pubs accompanied by adults. Now is the time to turn up the pressure and make sure that children also get properly protected in the workplace, and that this anomaly in health and safety law ends.

Stuart Spear
Editor