Heh, you are kind of making my point for me here. Buying the rare elements needed to build a modern phone is just about impossible to do without sourcing things from the Democratic Republic of the Congo or other places where child and slave labour is likely to be involved.[1][2]
The fact that all the other phone manufacturers are just as bad is a convenient line to use in 'winning' an online platform war argument, but it's not a good moral argument.
Just a nit pick... they are sourcing from Rwandans... which is the first sign that they are dealing with bad guys. The materials they get from the Rwandans have come from the Congo... where the Rwandans ethnically cleanse areas so that they can mine the minerals.
So technically... the materials they source from the Rwandans are conflict materials procured from genocidal Rwandans... not really materials procured through child labor.
Of course... that just means it's much WORSE than child labor... I just thought people should have the facts straight more as a matter of principle.
You can start by googling Laurent Nkunda. To get a feel for what the Rwandan backed militias who loot these mines are like. Fair warning... that reading is really not for the timid though.
You can read background on the actual technical and logistical aspects of the mineral trade from Nest. The book is titled "Coltan".
If you want the actual dry but raw data of the UN reports there are several which touch on the DRC mineral situation, and they are all at the UN's site. (They only go back to 2004... to go further you'd actually have to get it out of google cache. But obviously the UN has compiled reports going back much further for the purposes of future Crimes Against Humanity prosecutions.) In any case, you can find them here:
Buying the rare elements needed to build a modern phone is just about impossible to do without sourcing things from the Democratic Republic of the Congo or other places where child and slave labour is likely to be involved.
Unless you stop buying and using such devices, yours is not a good moral argument.
The fact that all the other phone manufacturers are just as bad is a convenient line to use in 'winning' an online platform war argument, but it's not a good moral argument.
[1] http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/mar/11/search-...
[2] http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/apr/25/smartph...