from Hacker News

Arkansas: No need to age verify kids working in meat processing plants

by robarr on 3/13/23, 2:54 PM with 17 comments

• by knacky on 3/13/23, 5:20 PM

  AK is the abbreviation for Alaska. Should be AR for Arkansas.

• by maxerickson on 3/13/23, 10:04 PM

  A problem with all of these discussions about child labor laws is the huge status quo bias.

  Like if a law isn't working to protect children, it's a good thing to change it! How do we talk about that if every discussion starts with how horrifying it is to change the laws that protect children.

  When I looked at the Arkansas change, it didn't really seem like a big deal. Previously parents had to fill out a form and send it to the state and wait for approval. A form isn't going to stop a parent from describing the duties inaccurately or ensure that the employer actually sticks to the description that the parents agreed to. The way things go, the state agency probably felt a lot of pressure to rubber stamp them. And so on.

  I'm not sure I analyzed it well, but apparently we can't even talk about it, because change is bad.

• by cosmin800 on 3/13/23, 10:50 PM

  Just because one wrong thing is allowed, I guess other should be? Or should not?

• by julienfr112 on 3/13/23, 4:57 PM

  obvious ! meatplants working kids are poor kids. Online kids are rich kids.

• by mostertoaster on 3/13/23, 8:34 PM

  This could maybe interpreted as saying the online world is more dangerous than a meat packing plant. That doesn’t seem too far-fetched.