Everbody knows that you have to be at least 14 and above to get a job but the problem is that there are few oppurtunities for 14 and 15 years olds to get a job. Heres a fact that 14 and 15 year olds can only work for 3 hours after school time and 16 year olds can only work 8 hours after school ok the thing that makes me mad is the 15 and 16 year old thing
I think 15 and 16 teen year olds should have the same rights to getting a job or at least extend the job oppurtunies so a 15 year old can work at Mcdonalds or a fast food place or something and extend the hours to the point where we won’t be turned away for the employer saying "you can’t work here because the law says you can’t work this many hours".
My mother is a single parent and if we were still living in the apartment that we used to live in with the in IF me that we had most of our utilities would probaly be cut off. My father he pays child support but not enough to help he’s a goood father but sometimes he doesn’t have the money for us and makes it woulf have made it hard for my mother to survive on the income that she had the thing i’m trying to say is this needs to change to all the future 16 teen years olds out there this needs to chage me and my mother and brother don’t live in that apartment anymore we haven’t lived there in years but If something happened to the person that we are renting from now [fyi: my grandmother] my mother would not be able to support two kids so that why we need these jobs and the money I understand that kids to young like 13 maybe fourteen I don’t know should have to work less hours and have the restrictions but [fyi: i’m 14 now]
we need to stop depending on our parents because children in this country are blind deaf and dumb when it comes to what we can and cannot not do and our say in politics. we also need the money so we can ssave for a new car and college [ if we go] so that we don’t have to depend on our parents what if you have no parents what if you have no money the sooner you are able to get a job the more money you’ll have for college and the more for what you want so your parents can have less of a problem when it comes to money. I hate it when I use something and someone tells me no because when I want something in the store and i’m fourteen and tell me " if you don’t like it then get a job" then I would say " I tried and they wouldn’t hire me beacuse of the labor laws" I’m in highschool and I have to wait till my sophmore year to enjoy my teen years and it’s upsetting me and my friends wanted to go to a movie we had to make a planing process and come up with the money from our parents our parents paid for it and drove us if the rights for 15 year olds labor we’re to the point where I could get a job and a food places most teens in highschool would enjoy all four years of there teen days life is short and we should enjoy it most when your young and besides it’s good that us teens want to get a job it will take up our time so we won’t be smoking weed or contracting STD’s because we have nothing to do. I think adults would like it more if we were out working hard for the economy trying to help ourselves then sell’in crack on the streets or worst .
If you agree then right on but something has to change about this. but on to the subject about what every bodies talknig about
CHILD PREDATORS

one adult told me that there our predators out there that watch the kids at work and might try to make a move

I had said there is no sure way to protect your children from anything the child predator could be the child’s father or mother or even teacher I know because my brother’s teacher tried to get sex from a minor off the internet.
child predators are everwhere even in my neighborhood there are alot of them in my neighbor hood and lots of small children playing out side isn’t that called child endangerment with all these predators. besides the only reason we children have been put done by adults for to long one of the reason why kids don’t know what to do when faced with a predator is beacuse adults tell us to keep quiet and respect adults and I should stop now beacuse this is kinda long. and I gots to go now, but if I ever get into a debate about this issue I would win

later

Hmmm, I agree with you when it comes to kids that need to work or starve, but when its kids that just want more money for teen toys, I say no. 

Stay in school if you can and work learning.  You will do much better for yourself in the long run.  PS. I know that you do not want to hear that. But.

There are kids that have it rough and yet still make something of themselves, by studing and working hard.  When they graduate, they are much better at making a living than someone who cannot balance a check book. 

JMHO.

Elder Norm

Frustrating as it is in individual situations, the answer to poverty, especially of single working women and their children, is not facilitating child labor. Kids are too easy for employers to take advantage of and, as has already been pointed out, people make more money and do better economically and in other important ways with better educatrion rather than earlier/more work experience. The answer is more complicated involving dealing with living wage issues, discrimination against women and people of color, enforcing child support, and lots of other hot political topics we could debate ad infinitum here without solving.

I don’t think this little girl likes Bill O’Reilly too much .  :|

Nor does he like her— here’s his response . 

Debbie

O’Reilly said the child’s parents are nuts and the woman he’s interviewing (forget her name) said that what the parents have put the child up to do is a form of child abuse. Listening to this I couldn’t help but think how Richard Dawkins sees “faith-based education” as a form of “child abuse” as well.

Piano lessons for your child—child abuse!  Cajoling the child to practice—or to even do math homework—oh, the horrors!  How dare.

I’m exaggerating to make a point, because it takes less time to do it that way than to sit and spell out the point itself!    Some ways of making a child learn to play piano (“Practice for four hours or no food!”) or finish all his vegetables would be abuse in my book.  But I think that the lady speaking with O’Reilly is a wackjob.

I remember as a kid thinking that my father making me stand out in the January and February cold at the train station to sell Girl Scout cookies was cruel—I’d always get sick, but I was the top seller in the Philadelphia council several years in a row…

Debbie

Work can be very positive ... when managed responsibly

My short answer is that kids need to be slowly taught responsibility as they grow up from 0 to adulthood and at adulthood we need to be able to be responsible members of our society. One way to do that is through employment. I am talking about employment that allows a young person to understand service and allows them to attain the fullfillment one gets from “a job well done”.

I have worked in a profession, Parks and Recreation, that has allowed me to work with kids 14 and up for over 20 years. I also have two boys, one is 15 and the other is 20. The 20 year old is a junior in college and is studying Politics and Latin American Studies while being very involved with his campus “Scholars for 9/11 Truth”. He also works as a custodian in the local school district part time to pay for his “extras”. We pay for his college room and board. The 15 year old is a Freshman in High School and will be working this summer about 30 hours per week. He has travelled as a student ambassador throughout Europe and last summer was in China for 3 weeks. Both of my boys also have plenty of additional time for their activities of choice, friends and family.

I say the above to point out that I have experience both working with kids and raising kids who work and attend school and are involved in the community. It’s important to understand that we all have different needs and desires and different drives. I agree that we can’t allow the types of child labor abuses that we see all over the world. To me this is a form of violence that when aimed towards our youth manifests itself later in life in many, many ways.

Kids 14 -15 should be allowed to work at the types of jobs that are congruent to their abilities and that will help them continue to succeed socially both outwardly and inwardly, as work is a way of helping kids feel good about themselves and what they contribute to society. When people learn that giving to your community is not only a necessary but a enjoyable component of life we start to foster the type of place where we all want to live.

There are so many aspects of youth employment not only for pay but as volunteers that is so positive I could go on forever but I’ll stop now and I hope that this wasn’t too long….

Yes and no.  They need to stay in school, but they also need to learn the value of a dollar too, so a weekend part time job wouldn’t hurt them, if they can keep their grades up.