The first child labor law in England (1788) regulated the hours and conditions of labor of the miserable children who worked as chimney sweeps; a dirty, dangerous job which antedated the Industrial Revolution, and which was not connected with factories.
The first act which applied to factory children was passed to protect those who had been sent into virtual slavery by the parish authorities, a governmental body. They were deserted or orphaned pauper children who were legally under the custody of the poor-law officials in the parish, and who were bound to these officials into long terms of unpaid apprenticeship in return for bare sustenance.
The Effects of the Industrial Revolution on Women and Children – Robert Hessen (1962)