Smartphone manufacturers are ignoring child labor, says Amnesty

Major electronics brands including Apple, Samsung, and Sony are ignoring child labor practices in their supply chains, according to a new report from Amnesty International.

The report found children as young as seven working in dangerous conditions in cobalt mines in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

Cobalt is a key component of lithium-ion batteries used in smartphones and other electronic products. Over half of all cobalt comes from the DRC.

According to the report, a joint investigation with the NGO Afrewatch, workers in cobalt mines face both long-term health risks and a high risk of fatal accidents. Researchers found children working up to 12 hours a day in the mines, earning between one and two dollars a day. Workers are not supplied with protective clothing to protect them from lung and skin diseases.

Amnesty’s Mark Dummett commented that: “Millions of people enjoy the benefits of new technologies but rarely ask how they are made. It is high time the big brands took some responsibility for the mining of the raw materials that make their lucrative products.”

Eric Edmonds has written for IZA World of Labor about the effect that minimum age of employment regulation has on child labor. He writes that: “Minimum age regulations have the potential to reduce child labor. As currently implemented, however, they do not appear to substantively influence child employment and may lessen political pressure for more meaningful reforms. If enforced, minimum age regulations can be a useful tool to change how children work, but there is little evidence of widespread enforcement. Minimum age regulations are not a tool to promote schooling.”

The Amnesty report, This Is What We Die For, can be downloaded here.

Related articles:
Does minimum age of employment regulation reduce child labor? by Eric V. Edmonds
Designing labor market regulations in developing countries by Gordon Betcherman