1. THE EMPLOYMENT OF CHILDREN IN THE MOTION PICTURE INDUSTRY.
- Author
-
Weiss, Benjamin S.
- Subjects
MOTION pictures & children ,CHILD labor ,EDUCATION ,CHILD welfare ,SOCIAL work with children ,MOTION picture industry - Abstract
The article discusses the employment of children in the motion picture industry. At the present time, there are employed annually about fifteen hundred children in the production phase of the motion picture industry in Los Angeles. There were numerous complaints on the part of school principals that children employed in the motion picture industry, either full or part time, were retarded in their work and also showed symptoms of physical and moral decline as a direct result from such employment. Twenty cases in all were reported as manifesting definite physical and nervous reaction, including nervousness, irritability, and impaired health. The work at the studio school has several undesirable features. The lack of co-ordination with the public school is detrimental to the child's school work. The child may attend several days consecutively, or he may only attend a day. The child is subject to call at any time while the studio school is in session. This creates a great deal of confusion and the child is kept in a constant state of nervous inattention. The motion picture industry, an industry of recent origin, has produced an important child welfare problem. This problem is not entirely the result of the anti-social conscience of some of the leaders in motion picture production but of a combination of the impersonal attitude of modem business and the apparent need of employing children under questionable circumstances.
- Published
- 1921