The Industrial Revolution that began in the 1700s led to overpopulation in cities hoping to make a fortune. Families moved to cities where factories grew and expanded. A larger workforce that included child workers was needed to support supply chains. Child workers began working at a young age, working in poor conditions that resulted in multiple injuries. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Child labor is where children as young as four years old are taken from homes and orphanages or sent to work by their parents to earn little or nothing. There was a high demand for labor and children were cheaper to pay. Child workers may work closer to machines with smaller hands and bodies than adults. These children worked with machinery, sold newspapers, cleaned chimneys and girls made matches in factories, boys worked long hours in coal mines. Children of about four years of age cleaned the fireplaces which were narrow and cramped. Their bodies were twisted to fit the chimneys and because of this their malleable bones developed deformities. It was preferable to employ children over adults as they were more versatile and saved money. Poverty in the cities meant that the entire family had to work to support themselves. Young children began working at the age of four, five or six and worked their way up to long hours, capped at nineteen hours with one hour break. The usual shift lasted twelve to fourteen hours with minimal breaks. The children started work at five in the morning and finished at nine in the evening. These were the common start and end times although they could vary. These long hours earned them little or no pay. The orphans were paid nothing, this was justified by the fact that they received accommodation, clothing and food. Other children received wages that were a fraction of what an adult was paid for the same work. Children who were paid received 20% of what an adult received. Life in the factories was dangerous and many children were seriously injured or killed. Children worked near dangerous, unattended machinery with moving parts. In some factories, children received no breaks to eat food with little or no nutritional value and were required to multitask. Children were punished for not working hard enough, for being tired, and for being late. These actions were punished with neglect of child safety, verbal abuse, beatings and pondering. Weighting was a punishment in which the child had heavy weights tied around his neck and was forced to work up and down the corridors of the factory to set an example. This form of punishment leads to neck and back injuries. Children were regularly beaten with a belt. When the children got tired, the supervisor immersed their heads in a tank full of cold water. Hair cutting was sometimes used as punishment for girls. Injuries due to dangerous working conditions were common. One hospital reported treating thousands of people each year for injuries and mutilations caused in the workplace. Some injuries were caused by punishments and the rest by working conditions. Deaths were also frequent when children were dragged into machinery by loose clothing and killed. The mines where children also worked were dangerous and sometimes collapsed and killed the children who worked there. The long hours came often.