<P> The concept of children having particular rights is a relatively new one . Traditional attitudes towards children tended to consider them as mere extensions of the household and' owned' by their parents and / or legal guardian, who exerted absolute parental control . </P> <P> Views began to change during the Enlightenment, when tradition was increasingly challenged and the value of individual autonomy and natural rights began to be asserted . </P> <P> The Foundling Hospital in London was founded in 1741 as a children's home for the "education and maintenance of exposed and deserted young children". Thomas Spence, an English political radical wrote the first modern defence of the natural rights of children in The Rights of Infants, published in 1796 . </P> <P> With the onset of the Industrial Revolution, children as young as six began to be employed in the factories and coal mines in often inhumane conditions with long hours and little pay . During the early 19th century this exploitation began to attract growing opposition . The terrible conditions of the poor urban children was exposed to liberal middle - class opinion, notably by the author Charles Dickens in his novel Oliver Twist . Social reformers, such as the Lord Shaftesbury, began to mount a vigorous campaign against this practice . </P>

When did the children's rights movement start