On September 26, 151 years ago, Lewis Hine was born in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. He was a teacher who became a pioneering photographer, defending children’s right to education by denouncing child labour with his camera. His images forced the United States to face an intolerable truth: millions of children were being robbed of their childhoods in factories, coal mines, and farms. Hine’s photographs were more than art—they were evidence.

His lens exposed the inhumanity of child labour and helped build the political will to outlaw it. Yet today, very few teachers have even heard of Lewis Hine, despite the fact that his work transformed children’s lives in the United States and education.

Yet in 2025, the world still refuses to confront its own complicity. Child labour is not history—it is our present.

Nearly 400 million children work today. Almost one million children are working in the United States, and close to two million inside the European Union. Even the wealthiest societies have failed to act.

The world committed to eliminate child labour and forced labour by 2025, and G7 leaders renewed this pledge at the Summits in Elmau, Hiroshima, and Puglia, yet virtually nothing has been done to achieve it. The European Union claims zero tolerance for child labour, but simultaneously supports business models that exploit children, perpetuating the very system it claims to oppose.

Politicians have failed the poorest children, leaving millions to continue labouring in inhumane conditions. At the same time, tens of millions of children toil in the supply chains of global corporations.

Norway, which manages the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund with $2 trillion in assets under management and shares in more than 9,000 corporations, profits from the exploitation of these children. This is not an oversight—it is a business model.

By investing in corporations that depend on child labour, Norway enriches itself at the expense of children’s rights, while violating both international law and its own constitution. The hypocrisy extends further.

For 54 years, the World Economic Forum has claimed to be “Committed to Improving the State of the World”. Yet today, more than 75 million children work for the financial benefit of the Forum’s 2,500 participants—CEOs, financiers, and politicians who meet annually in Davos. Their rhetoric about sustainability and human rights collapses in the face of a reality they refuse to acknowledge.

And while this modern slavery continues, much of the international media looks the other way. Nor can corporations claim innocence. Not a single Fortune 500 corporation can claim to have Zero Child Labour in its supply chains. Too many of them knowingly exploit hundreds of thousands of children to reduce costs and increase profits.

Even organisations that claim to fight child labour—including UNICEF, the ILO, and many NGOs—receive substantial funding from these very corporations, creating a conflict of interest that undermines their stated mission. Their silence is not ignorance—it is complicity.

Legislation like the UK Modern Slavery Act or the EU Due Diligence Directive will not eliminate child labour or slavery in the supply chains. Without rigorous enforcement and accountability, such laws remain largely symbolic while children continue to suffer.

This is why Lewis Hine’s legacy is so urgent. The world needs a coordinated global initiative of investigative journalists, photographers, and video journalists who, like Hine, can turn invisible suffering into undeniable truth.

Without investigation there is denial; without images there is invisibility. Journalism and photography together have the power to transform statistics into human stories, to stir outrage, and to pressure governments, corporations, and citizens into action.

But courage alone is not enough. Investigative reporters and visual journalists need protection, financial resources, and recognition.

If we are serious about ending child labour, we must invest in those who risk everything to expose it. Children cannot lobby parliaments. They cannot organise press conferences. But their reality can be documented—and once documented, it cannot be ignored.

On the 151st anniversary of Lewis Hine’s birth, let us honour him not with nostalgia, but with commitment. A commitment to build a new global movement of investigative journalists and visual storytellers, ensuring that in our lifetime, cameras and journalism once again become tools of justice powerful enough to abolish child labour everywhere.

And let us also appeal to teachers, in every classroom and in every country: teach the story of Lewis Hine. Teach children that their education is a right, not a privilege, and that it was defended by a teacher who used his camera to fight for justice.

If his story is remembered, it can inspire the next generation not only to value education, but also to defend human rights with the same courage. We must go further.

Universities and journalism schools should integrate Lewis Hine’s work into their curricula, training future investigative journalists, photographers, and video journalists to follow in his footsteps.

By educating young professionals about the power of visual storytelling and investigative reporting, we can ensure that Hine’s legacy endures—and that children’s rights are protected worldwide.

* Fernando Morales-de la Cruz is the founder and editor-in-chief of The Lewis Hine Initiatives.

** The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of IOL or Independent Media.

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