Incredible courage

[Nimbostratus100]

These are the people who we rely on for components of our mobile phones - often working in slave conditions

Please don't upgrade your technology more than necessary, and please do buy second hand reconditioned where you can. It's a luxury to us, and life or death to those at the bottom of the totally corrupt supply chain

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-africa-65095295

This is where the minerals in mobile phones and laptops come from

These are illegal miners called Zama zamas who breach abandoned mines.

Instead of pushing guilt to the end user for buying electronics made with components from these mines. Put your shame to the companies who use the unethical sources for their production.

There is no way of identifying which companies end up using these products. China imports them and then repackages them and obscures their origins

I have been very active politically in trying to get these products identified and banned, but it can't be done

Everyone on a phone or tablet of laptop right now is very probably holding in their hands minerals extracted under slave labour conditions in DRC.

@Nimbostratus100 there's precious little point in lecturing everyone else about something you are doing at this exact moment!!

The only thing that is going to close down this slave labour -based trade is for us in the west to stop using mobile phones as disposable and always wanting the next model.

This video shows the working conditions of those who are supplying the mineral components

I'm happy to keep hold of old tech - but guess what, the tech companies don't want me to.

We've recently had to trade in MacBook Pros in work because Apple stopped sending iOS updates to it. Nothing wrong with the machine itself - everything was working brilliantly but without the latest iOS it was more vulnerable to hackers/viruses. Too high a risk for my company so we were all forced into an upgrade.

That's 12 of us that have had to have brand new machines because Apple have decided to turn the existing ones obsolete. They were only 8 years old.

Apple are terrible for forced obsolescence in it's devices. Some of the other major players aren't much better either.

The end user isn't at fault for replacing devices that have been forced out of use, the origin companies are.

I agree that it's important to bring awareness to this issue and you are right in doing so.
However I understand why sometimes people can feel under attack, because they feel that it's nigh on impossible to live ethically in modern western society.
As people become more knowledgeable about this sort of issue, the more delusion ed they feel because their tiny contribution feels insignificant against the giants of the world. It's even more difficult if you have a family to provide for.
Having said this, campaigning to encourage reusing items and the benefits of this is a positive in my opinion, but it needs to be done in a way that isn't all doom and gloom, because many people can't deal with the overload of negatively, and therefore will shut off completely to this sort of talk, simply to protect themselves.

yes, maybe this is something consumers could take more action against, I am not sure how, but it is a very good point

I do think there is a certain number of people who are always going to be oppositional, and do the exact opposite of the right thing, because they take offence at the way they are informed, but I don't think it is worth chasing that small number - they are like that because of their personalities, and that won't change.

I think most people are fundamentally decent, and really dont want minerals in their electronics, in their homes to have been acquired through slave labour/rape/torture/death etc