This paper intends to present and to discuss some of many possible consequences of the early productive labor in a child development, in the adolescent life course and inside their families. Empirical data were collected in the labor experience of adolescents and children from a town in Rio Grande do Norte state where the subjects play a relevant role in the net making production for the textile industry. A culture values labor, and an absence of public policies for this impoverished population have contributed, among other factors, to the maintenance of the exploration of children and adolescents’ labor, despite the existence of the Children and Adolescent’s Statute and efforts made to face this situation.
early labor; childhood; adolescence
