Protection from Exploitation of Labor and Intellect

Sor Juana's intellectual labor was constantly demanded by others—ecclesiastical authorities, family members, patrons—while her agency over her own creative work remained contested. Child exploitation takes many forms: forced labor, child trafficking, but also the systematic extraction of children's emotional labor, intellectual work, and creative output with minimal recognition or compensation. Contemporary contexts include unpaid domestic labor, child labor in supply chains, academic plagiarism of student work, and the commodification of children's data and attention by digital platforms. For children's rights, protection from exploitation means: enforcing labor standards, preventing trafficking, ensuring children's creative work is credited and compensated, creating boundaries around children's time and attention, and recognizing that some forms of children's contribution (emotional support of parents, unpaid household labor) are often invisible but nevertheless exploitative. Children deserve the right to childhood—time for play, learning, rest, and development—not premature conscription into productivity. Sor Juana's struggle to retain control of her intellectual work illuminates why defending children's right to their own labor, time, and creative output is essential to dignity and freedom.