Nowadays? Compared to when exactly?
Children in the years between, say (lets leave BC aside) 1000AD to 1700AD were subjected to the same as any adult. They were involved in mass migration (no secure home) because of feuding and wars/battles, they were often sold into slavery/marriage, were more often than not abused by their masters (if not their parents), they had no social status (unless they had royal or aristocrat blood) and were made to serve anyone who controlled them - in any way they liked. They were often the subject of sacrificial rite and should they be unfortunately lacking in �warrior� like (or slave like for girls) qualities then they would be outcasts of the village and forced to survive alone, at the mercy of any foe.
In, say, 1700 society suddenly found that children had a use (Workhouse Test Act) in that they could perform menial tasks for a pittance. Up until about 1914 this was probably the case, you know children down mines, up chimneys, pick pocketing etc (you know standard Dickens stuff) and then with the event of WW1 & WW2, children often had no mother or father to care for them as they were contributing to the war effort or fighting on the front line, not to forget being shipped out to the nether-regions of the UK during the evacuation, never mind the number of orphan�s resulting from 2 world wars.
Kids of today? - never had it so good.