Two trends that taste worse together re youth inclusion

This morning I read that more commercial spaces (theme parks, malls) are banning attendees under 18 unless accompanied by adults, often defined as adults over 21. And my mind instantly put this together with the recent news that more states are weakening laws that protect children from exploitative labor.

And here is what that gets me: there is every chance that these malls and amusement parks want to hire people under 21 to work hours that they are forbidden from being in the same space as customers rather than employees. And that feels deeply creepy and unethical to me.

Making  it harder to exist in public threatens the lives of young people. It is vital that young people be able to take public transit to public places where they can spend time because often home is not a safe space. And being able to go somewhere else is part of what young people need to do to survive to adulthood. Also: many parents are younger than 21! Whether this is an ideal situation or not, under these commercial rules an 18 or 19 year old parent working full-time cannot take their child out to a movie or to a food court after work. That is horrible. My mom was not yet 21 when she had me, so I take this idea very personally. And many babysitters and older siblings are not 21, so of course they cannot bring children to events either in this scenario. A college or high school kid should be able to take their little sibling or cousin to the movies or buy them a shirt.

Rules like this are enforced more against poor people and people who aren’t white and that rich white kids are unlikely to get in serious trouble, so this feels like just another way to criminalize the kids who are already over-policed.

We live in a world where many people would rather have children work unsafe jobs for unsafe hours than allow them to go to the movies unaccompanied and that just really makes me mad in a way I don’t know how to process.