Editing Child labour (section)

===Preindustrial societies===
Child labour forms an intrinsic part of pre-industrial economies.<ref name="ReferenceA">{{cite book |last=Diamond |first=Jared |title=The World Until Yesterday |date=2012 |publisher=Viking |isbn=9780670024810}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Thompson |first=E. P. |title=The Making of the English Working Class |publisher=Penguin |year=1968}}{{page needed|date=November 2022}}</ref> In [[Pre-industrial society|pre-industrial societies]], there is rarely a concept of childhood in the modern sense. Children often begin to actively participate in activities such as [[Parenting|child rearing]], hunting and farming as soon as they are competent. In many societies, children as young as 13 are seen as adults and engage in the same activities as adults.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>

The work of children was important in pre-industrial societies, as children needed to provide their labour for their survival and that of their group.<ref>{{Cite web |title=UNICEF |url=https://www.unicef-irc.org/publications/pdf/hisper_childlabour.pdf}}</ref> Pre-industrial societies were characterised by low productivity and short [[life expectancy]]; preventing children from participating in productive work would be more harmful to their welfare and that of their group in the long run. In pre-industrial societies, there was little need for children to attend school. This is especially the case in non-literate societies. Most pre-industrial skill and knowledge were amenable to being passed down through direct mentoring or [[apprenticing]] by competent adults.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>

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File:Mill Children in Macon 2.jpg|Child labourers, [[Macon, Georgia]], 1909
File:Child Labor in New Jersey United States 1923.jpg|Children working in home-based assembly operations in United States (1923)
File:Abolish child slavery.jpg|Two girls protesting child labour (by calling it child slavery) in the 1909 New York City [[Labor Day]] parade.
File:Child labor, cranberry bog, Burlington County, New Jersey, 8a10151.jpg|[[Arthur Rothstein]], ''Child Labor, Cranberry Bog'', 1939. [[Brooklyn Museum]].
</gallery>