Apple, Samsung, and Sony Face Child Labor Claims (amnestyusa.org)

An anonymous reader writes: Amnesty International has accused Apple, Samsung, Sony, and other tech companies of failing to do basic checks to ensure minerals used in their products are not mined by children. A new report explains how cobalt is harvested from mines by children as young as seven years old. The cobalt then ends up in lithium-ion batteries sold to device-makers throughout the world. The list of companies who use these batteries also includes Daimler, Dell, HP, Huawei, Lenovo, LG, Microsoft, Vodafone, Volkswagen, and ZTE. Amnesty International notes that half the world's cobalt comes from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where many mining operations have terrible track records for accidents and concern for workers' welfare. They say, "the vast majority of miners spend long hours every day working with cobalt without the most basic of protective equipment, such as gloves, work clothes or facemasks to protect them from lung or skin disease." According to UNICEF, about 40,000 kids worked in mines across southern DRC in 2014.

Comments

I get it, but it's stupid.

[truck_soccer]

They have to be accountable for the actions of a 3rd party? I understand sourcing responsible materials is ethically and morally sound, but there has to be a point at which the blame is on the supplier and not the buyer....right?

Re:Tesla?

[netsavior]

well since electric vehicles are 6% of the global demand for lithium, probably not. "Other" batteries such as cellphones, laptops, etc are 23%,

Electric vehicles are the biggest growth area, but other devices are currently the biggest demand.

at least according to financial prospectus, and I always tend to follow the money.