Devastating child slavery...

"Around the world, some 218 million children are still bonded, trafficked and exploited."

Newsweek World News has an educational photo gallery on the reality of child slavery occurring in our world today. It's so upsetting. The photo gallery is entitled The Smallest Slaves. This can be viewed at: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17724765/displaymode/1107//s/2/framenumber/1

Some of the stats that are included in the photo gallery include:

• Today, there are still millions of men, women and children who have been tricked, coerced or intimidated into prostitution or forced labor, required to work long hours for little or no pay, and subjected to harsh and violent working conditions.
• A new report by Save the Children estimates that some 218 million children between the ages of 5 and 17 are working as modern-day child laborers; of those, 126 million are involved in hazardous work. Many are bought and sold, pushed into bonded labor or sexually exploited to repay debts. Others are trapped in harsh and dangerous conditions as domestic servants, miners or agricultural workers. In some war-torn nations, children are abducted, separated from their families, and forced to work as soldiers in armed and bloody militias.
• Save the Children says that some children have been forced at gunpoint by government troops or rebels to carry loads of extracted minerals.
• Many children in the DRC have been denied education because of the country's six-year civil war, which is believed to have cost some 4 million lives.
• More than 100 million children under the age of 15 work in agriculture, many exposed to pesticides, heavy machinery and dangerous tools.
• There are an estimated 100,000 child domestic workers in Pakistan, many of whom work extremely long hours for little pay and are regularly subjected to harsh punishments by their employers. Many are banned from attending school or have so much work they cannot attend classes.
• Millions of children across the world are forced to work up to 15 hours a day as domestic workers. Many are beaten, starved and sexually abused.
• More than 50,000 children are employed as domestic help in Calcutta households; many are deprived of school, pay and social activities.
• Under international law, it is illegal to recruit and use children under the age of 15 as combatants or in conflicts. Yet today, an estimated 300,000 children under this age are fighting in wars. Children are easy recruitment targets because they are easy to manipulate, and they learn quickly.