Pakistan, June 12 -- Every year on 12th June, when the world marks the fight against child labour, the same images return. A child carrying bricks at a kiln. A young boy bent over a machine at a sugar mill. A little girl is cleaning someone else's home. These scenes are real, and they rightly deserve our outrage. Approximately 138 million children remain engaged in child labour worldwide. In Pakistan alone, millions remain out of school, many pushed into fields, workshops and domestic work.

But these images no longer show the whole picture. While these forms of exploitation must remain at the centre of public concern, a newer form is also quietly growing in places where inspectors, teachers and even parents may not think to look. Child l...