Dazed and Confused found that most local authorities had not updated local child employment laws despite tougher EU rules on child labour becoming English law in 2000.
Carolyn Hamilton, director of the Children's Legal Centre, and author of the study, said: "The situation turned out to be worse than we expected. We thought there was a problem but not to this extent. It is now important that national legislation on child employment is introduced and that we see an end to the use of bylaws in this area."
England's child labour laws date back to 1933 and allow, within limits, local authorities to use bylaws to set the minimum working age. But despite tougher restrictions in the EU laws, such as a ban on employing under-13s, most councils have failed to update their bylaws.
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