Most jobs in forced and bonded labor are technically legal, on farms
and in factories, but 1.8 million work in the global sex trade, as prosti-
tutes or performers in pornographic videos. Most are girls, but an
estimated 10 to 30 percent are boys. Procurers prefer children to
adults because they are easy to control, and can be promoted to poten-
tial clients as virgins and therefore disease free (International Labour
Organization, 2006).
Another 600,000 are employed in criminal activities other than the
sex trade (of course, a sizeable percentage do both). Usually their jobs
involve drug manufacture or distribution, but they can also engage in
pickpocketing, shoplifting, car theft, and burglary. Most are boys. Pro-
curers prefer them to adults because they can move about freely, cause
less suspicion, and receive lenient punishment when they are caught
(International Labour Organization, 2006).
Adolescents and children have been commandeered for armed con-
flicts in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Pacific. Some countries
permit the conscription of 13- or 14-year-olds, and others simply fail to
regulate its conscription process (in Bolivia, 40 percent of the armed forces
are under 18 years old). Intertribal conflicts and terrorism also draw
upon underaged operatives. Most are boys, but a sizeable number of
girls are conscripted as well. A few become soldiers, and the others
become servants or camp prostitutes (Human Rights Watch International Labour
Organization, 2006).Getting Older and Getting Better?
Youth and Age in the 21st Century
Recently, a student came to my office wondering why she was getting a C in the class,
when she had gotten straight A’s before. In fact, she was getting C’s in all her classes
this semester, and she couldn’t understand why. Had anything in her life changed this
semester, I asked? Nothing except turning 21. Well, that and the fact that she was
working full-time now, in addition to a full course load, partly because at age 21 she
was no longer covered under her family’s health plan. I suggested that she might con-
sider cutting back on her work hours. No, she said, she needed the money. Okay, then
how about cutting back on her courses? No, she said, she needs them to graduate.
Well, then, I asked, can you learn to be happy with C’s?
Faced with what appeared to be an impossible decision, she looked me straight
in the eye and said, “It sucks to be old.” (And, given the continued inequality based
on age, it probably sucks to be young as well.)
The status of elders may rise as baby boomers start hitting retirement age,
and because boomers grew up at the start of the information revolution, they will
have the computer expertise that previous cohorts of the elderly lacked. Aging will
continue to change.
But more than that, young people and old people are constantly changing the
meaning of age in our society. In the future we will certainly live longer lives, and
children will delay assuming full adult responsibilities for longer and longer periods—
that is, we will be both old and young for a longer amount of time. It remains to be
seen whether living longer will enable all of us to also live better or whether the rich
will live longer and happier lives and the poor will live shorter, unhappy lives.376 CHAPTER 11AGE: FROM YOUNG TO OLD
An estimated 300,000 soldiers around the
world are youth under the age of 18. Some
join fighting groups because they believe in
the cause, while others join mainly to sus-
tain themselves with food and protection.
Many others are forced to join; they may be
abducted or drafted, then indoctrinated.
While boys are stereotypically assumed to
be better fighters, girls are participating in
fighting forces in 55 countries, assuming
roles as fighters, spies, messengers, look-
outs, medics, and supply carriers as well as
more traditional gender roles as captive
“wives” or sex slaves, mothers, cooks,
and domestic servants (United Nations,
2005).Didyouknow
?