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Nintendo Investigating Underage Workers At Foxconn

Posted by samzenpus on from the mario-approved dept.

itwbennett writes "Earlier this week, Foxconn revealed that an internal investigation had turned up workers as young as 14 toiling at its factory in Yantai, China. Now Nintendo, whose products are manufactured at that factory, is also investigating Foxconn's labor sourcing."

9 of 124 comments (clear)

  1. Working at 14 by ottawanker · · Score: 3, Insightful

    That's the legal age in most places of Canada to start working, what's the problem? In Ontario you'd need to be 15 to work in a factory. I had my first job (part time) when I was that age.

    1. Re:Working at 14 by TitusC3v5 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      You can work in most states in the USA as well at age 15 or 16 (and often younger for family businesses). Why is it such a big deal that there are 14 year olds at Foxconn?

      --
      And the masses cried out, "09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0!"
    2. Re:Working at 14 by Rockoon · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Why is it such a big deal that there are 14 year olds at Foxconn?

      ..because a bunch of do-gooders think that its uncivilized. They equate child labor with forced labor.

      --
      "His name was James Damore."
    3. Re:Working at 14 by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 3, Insightful

      These workers will not go on to develop the next great idea. They will be workers their whole lives. Starting earlier just means greater lifetime earnings. A brain just means more trouble for them as they will be bothered by the repetitive work, whereas duller minds tolerate it much better. In many cases what they do can literally be replaced by machines.

      I also note that you implicitly call China uncivlised, which sounds awfully racist to me.

      --
      Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
    4. Re:Working at 14 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Yeah, but you're comparing workers from a first world country to China. In Canada, you can have unions, people have rights that are respected and upheld by the governement.

    5. Re:Working at 14 by Rogerborg · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Correct, China isn't "civilised", in the Latin sense of the word. It's a cluster of medieval agrarian villages, with some industry springing up around major waterways. It's going through exactly the same industrial revolution that "civilised" nations went through in the past, with the same winners and losers.

      You can educate the peasants all the like, but then they'll be educated and toiling in the rice paddies, or educated and toiling in the factories. Either way, they're not post industrial and don't have the same leisure to flout their education from the comfort of their keyboards that you and I enjoy, and judging them on that basis is neither fair nor reasonable.

      --
      If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
    6. Re:Working at 14 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      These workers will not go on to develop the next great idea. They will be workers their whole lives. Starting earlier just means greater lifetime earnings. A brain just means more trouble for them as they will be bothered by the repetitive work, whereas duller minds tolerate it much better. In many cases what they do can literally be replaced by machines.

      Thank you Assistant Predestinator for reminding the Betas about Elementry Class Consciousness.
      All of the Alphas here remember their lessons and certainly agree with you.
      We all have our role: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Epsilon.

  2. The Musical Video by Spy+Handler · · Score: 4, Insightful

    [close-up shot of Steve Jobs lounging in a high-tech office, Apple logo]

    SJ: "Oppan Foxconn Style!"

    [camera zooms out, background is actually a Foxconn assembly line]

    14-year-old female worker: "Ooh, sexy lady"

  3. Re:Are you SHITTING ME? by CodeheadUK · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Except this isn't game development. It's an production line. Attach your part to the assembly and pass it to the next station, repeat until the shift change whistle goes. It's mindless repetition for drones, not imaginative thinking to expand the mind.

    However, if the kid is paid a decent wage, why not allow it? We are too quick to apply our values to other societies. Kids under the age of 10 scrape a living collecting garbage for recycling in the slums of India. All of a sudden the Chinese kid's life looks much better.