Everybody wants the latest and greatest technology. People will throw away a fairly new phone that they got from the previous year in order to get their hands on what’s currently trending. With that being said the iPhone 17 by Apple was just released this past week on Sept. 19.
Many people are raving about the phone and other pointless accessories, such as the phone strap. However, what many people fail to realize is that Apple has been sourcing its materials from Democratic Republic of Congo, a country that is a major producer of resources like cobalt that are used at the expense of human lives.
Congo is bleeding at the hands of those who take materials from it. Kids are exploited, they are forced into working in the cobalt mines as young as six years old in very hazardous environments to extract the materials needed to create technology such as smartphones, tablets and computers.
An article released by the Canary, details of how the impact of exploitative labor is hurting Congolese communities and its people. “It has contributed to staggering levels of gynecological and reproductive health problems for women and girls in communities living nearby to the world’s largest cobalt mines.” Meaning that it is harming their health and the effects could last a lifetime.
Mines are cramped, the air is hard to breathe in and no child or anyone, for that matter, should be exposed to these chemicals.
When we don’t stop to think about whose hardworking hands are behind the phones we use in our day-to-day lives.
While in another country, communities are dying and starving because of the environments in which they are placed into by force. People don’t realize that individuals are being exploited to make the phones we hold in our hands.
So what can we do? For those thinking of buying the new iPhone, consider alternative brands or buying a used phone off of second-hand sites. Taking care of our devices is one way we can avoid purchasing a new one.
Please inform yourself on the child labor that is happening right now in Congo, we can’t allow trillion dollar companies like Apple to believe that they don’t know what they’re doing. Apple will continue to profit and benefit from child labor. The more they release new products, the more that they source these minerals from Congolese children. The more that people buy, the more they will continue to follow through with these exploitative practices. It is inhumane and we mustn’t turn a blind eye to it.
