This petition was submitted during the 2015–2017 Conservative government
Petition Make the law clear that any child who assists in for profit work is employed
Thousands of children, many of them younger than 13 in the UK, are working in commercial research, testing, marketing and consultancy. See http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/4308213/Thousands-of-children-being-paid-to-market-products-to-schoolmates.html
More details
The Children and Young Persons Act 1933 prohibits children younger than 13 being used to assist in for-profit work such as that described above. However, problems with enforcing this law have caused many to turn a blind eye to this. The result is many children are being exploited –have no workers’ rights, are deprived of pay and can end up doing work such as for-profit clinical testing that is unsafe for them, and so the law needs to be made clearer to ensure this does not happen.
This petition closed early because of a General Election Find out more on the Petitions Committee website