Amazon news for Friday includes allegations that the company takes advantage of child labor to create its Alexa devices.
Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) itself doesn’t actually make the Alexa devices. However, it does have them made by Chinese manufacturer Foxconn. A recent report claims that Foxconn is forcing children still in school to create these devices.
The report says that children between the ages of 16 and 18 that are still in school are working on Amazon Alexa devices. Labor laws in China allow for this. However, it’s currently illegal for them to work overtime or at night.
Despite the legal restrictions, the Amazon news report claims that Foxconn is forcing these works, which is pays as interns, to do just that. Those that refuse have to deal with pressure from their teachers and the threat of it messing up their opportunities for graduation.
“We are urgently investigating these allegations and addressing this with Foxconn at the most senior level,” an Amazon spokesperson told The Guardian. “Additional teams of specialists arrived on-site yesterday to investigate, and we’ve initiated weekly audits of this issue.”
Foxconn is a major manufacturer of electronics in China. It also has connections with another large company in the U.S.: Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL). This current report doesn’t mention anything about that tech company’s devices being made with illegal child labor.
AMZN stock was down slightly as of Friday afternoon.
As of this writing, William White did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
