Kids must not be slaves to fashion

On Wednesday, a mother who was criticized for kicking a young girl in a shop in Hangzhou, East China's Zhejiang province, said she "was anxious". China Daily writer Zhang Zhouxiang comments:

Even though she is the girl's mother, the woman has no right to physically assault her. It is illegal to attack another person.

The woman might receive a public security penalty from the police or even criminal charges from the procurator.

Yet there are other things besides the kick, that need considering. According to reports, the victim girl is a child model taking photos at a contracted shop and the women kicked her because she was so tired that she did not want to continue.

According to media reports, the number of child models might be quite huge in certain cities, especially those with plants producing children's clothing. There have been previous reports of one small city having about 1,000 child models. One only has to look at the hundreds of thousands of online child clothing shops to realize that might well be the case, as all these outlets need children to model their clothes to attract buyers.

Yet the law clearly forbids businesses employing minors. There are certain exceptions, including modeling. However, in reality these child models might be working so long that they are almost like full-time employees. How to protect their rights? How to prevent the employers from assigning them too much work?

Further, how to make sure the child models receive education, instead of working all day?

Measures are clearly needed to better regulate the child modeling industry. The labor regulatory departments, the child protection agencies, even the business associations all need to perform their jobs well so as to protect child models.