“Only one out of ten farm kids actually work on farms anymore, excluding the Amish.”
Be that as it may, they did between the advent of child labor laws and now. Certainly they weren’t intended to cover farm labor, nor have they been strictly construed that way. I wonder why, is all.
Is industrial work especially onerous? In ways, yes; in others, no. But for adults as well as kids, so nevermind. Is the idea that mothers and fathers wouldn’t lash them like greedy capitalist bosses? Ha!
So what is it, aside from pure presumption? Probably nothing.
“Certainly they”
“they” being the laws, not the children, if that was unclear.