In a statement, the Taiwan-based manufacturer acknowledged that some students who took part in its summer internship programme were below China's minimum legal working age of 16.

BBC: Foxconn

According to La Repubblica, a newspaper, the prosecutors have a statement in which she claims she told the 74-year-old Mr Berlusconi she was under the age of 18, the legal minimum age for prostitution in Italy.

ECONOMIST: Silvio Berlusconi's troubles

The 1990 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) set the legal minimum age for military recruitment at 15.

BBC: UN wants child soldiers demobilised

The country's legal minimum age for marriage was 15 till a decade ago, when the law was changed to allow for children even younger to be wed.

CNN: Child bride gets divorced after rape, beatings

As a result, nine-tenths of companies with more than 30 employees today set a mandatory retirement age, usually 60, the legal minimum.

ECONOMIST: Greying Japan

But at least, points out Miss Brett, if 18 becomes the legal minimum, then even allowing for the difficulty of telling a child's age in places where malnutrition may make him look younger than he is or hard labour make him older 13- and 14-year-olds are less likely to end up clutching Kalashnikovs.

ECONOMIST: Kalashnikov kids