The Children Yearn For The Mines is a phrase often used satirically in memes and posts regarding child labor laws, which became a political topic in early 2023 as Republican states lowered the legal working age to 14. Originally, the phrase came from a tweet about Minecraft in 2022. However, it became more prominently known for poking fun at the actual child labor laws.
The phrase is often used regarding children working in any context online, be it chores, video games, or any other sort of labor.
A bit about children and mining
To truly understand the meme, a brief primer on child labor laws feels in order.
When the Industrial Revolution hit Britain in the late 18th century, the exploitation of child labor grew exponentially. With education opportunities limited for working-class families, children were expected to contribute to the family income. Child labor was the labor of choice in the 18th and 19th centuries, notably two-thirds of workers in 143 water-powered cotton mills in England and Scotland in 1788.
Agility, energy, and little fingers were considered the benefits of putting the young’uns to work. Such conditions became more prevalent in the Victorian era, with children as young as four working long hours in production factories and mines.
Even today around the world, more than one million children under 15 are engaged in mines and quarries. Many of the children involved in current mining end up providing minerals for global supply chains of automobiles, banking, electronics, and jewelry. There are of course growing demands to halt such practices in the countries where they are most prevalent, such as Niger and Burkina Faso.
Origins of The Children Yearn For The Mines meme
The phrase “the children yearn for the mines” originated in a tweet on February 7th, 2022 from user @Froggenthusias1.
“Minecraft proves that abolishing child labour was a mistake. The children yearn for the mines,” they wrote regarding the insanely popular building and labor-focused video game Minecraft. The tweet received over 89.3k likes over a year.
Spread of the meme
Quickly after this initial tweet, screenshots of it would appear on other platforms, notably on /r/shitposting, where on February 10th, 2022, it received 5500 upvotes.
July 2nd of that same year, popular Twitch streamer Hasan Piker posted a quote retweet on Twitter that read, “The children yearn for the mines.” The post featured a screenshot of a July 2021 tweet from the New Hampshire Libertarian Party that stated, “Legalize Child Labor. Children will learn more on a job site than in public school.” The quote tweet received about 33.9k likes in eight months.
Going into late 2022, the catchphrase was used on TikTok, such as in a video uploaded by @yagirlfavoritepoet on September 12th, 2022, which featured the poster reading the initial @Froggenthusias1 tweet. The post gained about 3 million plays and 555k likes in six months.
@drumzaddy_ Joke bandit
♬ original sound – drumzaddy_
A few months later, on December 27th, @gronffo posted a TikTok duet with a clip of a child doing chores, accompanied by the catchphrase. The post saw roughly 27.7k plays and 1300 likes in three months.
@gronffo #duet with @Mehar K. never show this kid a coal mine ,#fyp #fypシ #childlabour ♬ original sound – lils
The 2023 repealing of child labor laws
The children yearn for the mines phrase took on a new life in February 2023, when Iowa’s Des Moines Register published an article that described a new bill introduced to the Iowa state Legislature that would “rewrite Iowa’s child labor law to allow teens to work in previously prohibited jobs.”
The jobs concerned here were the following: bagging and carrying groceries to cars, clerical work, and preparing and serving food. However, the bill did have some restrictions, prohibiting children from working in slaughterhouses, demolition sites, and most significantly, mines.
The article made its way to Twitter on February 7th, 2023, when Twitter user @MorePerfectUS posted a popular tweet about the bill.
The same day, @rileycollins__ quote tweeted that initial post with a photoshopped image of a child miner with the caption, “LET’S F–KING GO CHILD LABOR IS BACK BABY! GET THOSE F–KERS IN THE MINES.” The post received over 420 likes in a month.
Two days later, on February 9th, @rileycollins__ took the topic to TikTok using Photoshop to explain the seriousness of the Iowa bill. In the video, he incorporated the “children yearn for the mines” catchphrase. The TikTok gained about 925k views and 186k likes in a month.
@rileycollins__ So back #greenscreen #joke #children #funtimes ♬ original sound – Riley Collins
The issue crossed state lines the following month, when Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed legislation into law on March 7th. The law eliminated age verification requirements for workers under the age of 16. Similar proposals were advancing in Missouri and Minnesota at the time as well.
On March 10th, 2023, @xiandivyne posted a TikTok stitch about the Arkansas development using the “children yearn for the mines” phrase. The post saw around 84.7k plays and 24k likes in four days.
@xiandivyne #stitch with @aflcio the children yearn for the mines #fyp #xiandivyne #blacktiktok #uspolitics #politics ♬ Spooky, quiet, scary atmosphere piano songs – Skittlegirl Sound
Meme examples
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