 These were dangerous jobs and many children were seriously injured or lost limbs.The government had not realised that the position for women was as bad as that of the children and was so shocked by the report that legislation was passed almost immediately, The Mines Act of 1842, which made it illegal for mine owners to employ women or children under the age of 10 years, underground.While women and the youngest children were stopped from going into the mines and various education acts raised the school leaving age, boys still followed their fathers' footsteps into the mines as late as the Second World War.