Children as performers have been exploited for their likability, their innocence and their ability to generate income. Child stars who enter the entertainment industry at a young age are often robbed off their normal childhood and being transformed into money-making machines for their parents and managers and wooed enthusiastically by fans as celebrities throughout history. From the employment law perspectives, child performers are child labours requiring particular care and protection as many aspects of the workplace or their work activities represent a potential level of risk which are higher for children than adults’ performers. International Labour Convention and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) provide guidelines as to appropriate measure to protect children in workplace. Developed countries which are hubs for entertainment such as Canada, USA and UK have specific rules imposed for the rights of the children in the entertainment industry.
Objective: This article looks into whether Malaysia has any legal framework to regulate the employment of children in the entertainment industry. This article adopts doctrinal legal research which is based on precedent and statutory analysis.
Ali Mohamed, A.A., Nik Mahmood, N.A.K., Mohd, A. Jelili, Y. & Marhanum. (2016). Protection of Child Labour: The International Instruments and Domestic Laws of Malaysia. Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Law and Society 2016 (ICLAS V). 18-19 September 2016, Pattani, Thailand.
Arrighi, G. & Emeljanow, V. (2014). Entertaining Children ‘The Participation of Youth in the Entertainment Industry. Australia: Palgrave Macmillan.
BBC Online: “Sacked manager sues Charlotte Church”, 21 February 2000, at
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk/wales/651282.stm
Bhattacharjee, S. (2014). Sophisticated Work Done by Children is Child Labour: An Overview of Children Working in Industries. International Journal of research in Humanities, Arts and Literature. Vol. 2(6). Pp 45-52.
Budd, N. (2014). Staging Childhood ‘Experiments in Authentic Theatre Making Practice with Children’ (Doctoral dissertation, Queensland University of Technology)
Children and Young Persons (Employment) Act 1966 (Act 350 of Malaysia).
Convention on the Right of the Child: Children in the Media ‘A Guide to Media Policy Affecting Children in Malaysia’ at https://www.unicef.org/malaysia/Children-in-Media.pdf
Declaration of The Rights of The Child at https://www.unicef.org/malaysia/1959-Declaration-of-the-Rights-of-the-Child.pdf
Elaws-employment Laws Assistance for Workers and Small Businesses. United States Department of Labor. Retrieved from (http://webapps.dol.gov/elaws/faq/esa/flsa/026.htm).
Fair Labor Standards Act 1938 (United States), Section 213.
Heller, S. J. (1999). The Pride of Celebrity: When a Child’s Star-studded Career Amounts to Nothing. DePaul Journal of Art, Technology and Intellectual property Law. Vol.10 (1).pp 161-174.
ILO, C138 Convention Concerning Minimum Age for Admission to Employment
United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child 1989 (UNCRC).
Krieg, J. (2004). There’s No Business Like Show Business: Child Entertainers and the law. U.PA Journal of Labour and Employment Law. Pp 429-449.
Legislative History of the Convention on the rights of the child http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Publications/LegislativeHistorycrc2en.pdf
Macaulay Culkin charged with drug possession (2005). Retrieved from
http://edition.cnn.com/2004/LAW/09/17/culkin.arrest/
National Legislation on Labour and Social Rights. International Labour Organization at www.ilo.org.
Sand, K. (2003). Child performers working in the entertainment industry around the world: An analysis of the problems faced. Working paper 186. International Labour Office, Geneva.
Shor, T. (2009). The Coogan Law. Retrieved from http://www.writing.ucsb.edu/sites/secure.lsit.ucsb.edu.writ.d7/files/sitefiles/publications/2010_Sho.pdf
Staenberg, M., Esq., & Stuart, D., Esq. (n.d.). Children as Chattels. Retrieved October 28, 2009, from A Minor Consideration Article Web site: http://www.minorcon.org/childrenaschattels.html
In-Text Citation: (Murshamshul, Udin, Ghadas, & Mohd Shahril Nizam, 2018)
To Cite this Article: Murshamshul, M. K., Udin, N. M., Ghadas, Z. A. A., & Mohd Shahril Nizam, M. R. (2018). Child Performers in the Entertainment Industry: An Analysis from the Employment Regulations Perspective. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 8(12), 1557–1568.
Copyright: © 2018 The Author(s)
Published by Human Resource Management Academic Research Society (www.hrmars.com)
This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this license may be seen at: http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode