From what I have gathered, it is pretty normal in America/English to call 16 years old "children" (although Guardian is from the UK), in contrast to Germany/German, where apparently they normally wouldn't be called "Kinder" but "Jugendliche". So maybe it is just a linguistic or cultural difference to your country.

Edit: I think it is also a method to differentiate K-12 schools from higher education. Although "college kids" does also appear to be used often in America (don't know about the UK). I am not sure whether "kid" and "child" can refer to different age groups.

Article should use the word teenager, not children - seems misleading.

In many countries the legal age to work is 14 or 15.

This is also age of consent in many European countries.

It’s newspeak. They’re “children” if you’re talking about work or being held responsible for their actions. They’re “independent young adults” if you’re talking about sex, drugs, or freedom to make bad and expensive life decisions.

More interesting in my opinion than stocking the shelves at the supermarket.

Are they in school?

That's what happens with manipulative things, they don't necessarily have to be wrong, but they are still manipulative. Go to Google Images, search for "schoolchildren", and tell me if any of those children look 16.

They are in a trade school, the work was setup by the school (and was probably “required”) as is common practice in China (whether that is a moral thing or not).

Which is also legal in some places of Europe, it's called "practicing" or whatever.

I think the system in Europe is more about practicing skilled trade than just doing unskilled factory work. If this story was about kids apprenticing to be plumbers, then I think there would be much less outrage.

Depends on the course, same practical internship are pretty much of the level of unskilled work. Still not okay without at least a decent pay if you ask me.

I don’t think 16 and a half kuai is very decent, but these kids are mostly from rural areas so it might seem like a good deal to them.

I do not know how it is now, but when I worked with companies doing apprenticeships for electricians in the Netherlands a while ago, I noticed most of them (the “children”) did unskilled or no work at all and did not care because the company signed off on their work so they would graduate.