Nintendo has released a statement after it became known that children as young as 14 were helping manufacture the Wii U at Foxconn. The Kyoto based company says that it is investigating the matter which has caused outrage online. Here’s Nintendo’s response to the matter.
“Nintendo is in communication with Foxconn and is investigating the matter. We take our responsibilities as a global company very seriously and are committed to an ethical policy on sourcing, manufacture and labor. In order to ensure the continued fulfillment of our social responsibility throughout our supply chain, we established the Nintendo CSR Procurement Guidelines in July 2008. We require that all production partners, including Foxconn, comply with these Guidelines, which are based on relevant laws, international standards and guidelines. If we were to find that any of our production partners did not meet our guidelines, we would require them to modify their practices according to Nintendo’s policy. For more information about Nintendo’s Corporate Social Responsibility report, please visit http://www.nintendo.co.jp/csr/en/index.html.”
It’s “Kyoto”.
Nintendo Wii U: Made by kids, for kids.
(before anyone accuses me of being a PS360 fanboy, I’m not – I don’t even own one. I just saw a chance for a joke)
I’ve already seen that joke in an article based on the same topic.
To be fair, is an easy joke to make.
for some reason this article makes nintendo lookblike pedos.
I would make a Jimmy Savile joke here, but…
Foxconn assemble products for Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft, Apple, and many many others.
Every so often a story like this comes up, everyone pretends to be outraged, and then they toddle off and pre-order whatever new gadget is coming up soon. It’s the Wii U now, the iPad Mini next, and then many more to come.
Faux outrage won’t do anything.
oh Foxconn.
I had a job when I was 14, whats the big deal.
This is a post about child labor, not 14 year olds having a job. I doubt you made video game consoles at the age of 14.
No, I delieved catalogues. However, if someone asked me to help build Nintendo consoles instead, I would have been all over that.
Yea those rich kids dont know the joy of workin for what they want or helping there family
Well, I probably spent the money on renting Nintendo games and buying candy, my parents would give me money for allowance but would tell me to save it. I just wanted my own money, with no strings attached.
The current labor conditions that older workers have to deal with are bad enough. But these are just kids, they shouldn’t have to deal with this.
No they shouldn’t have to deal with all the BS, nobody should. Some grade 10 students would rather work then play sports or whatever. Im sure they didn’t have a gun to their head, instead they probably lied and said they were older then they are.
It’s not a job, it’s children working for less than a minimum salary with poor working conditions, like unsafe work places, no medical care, and so on. It’s illegal to have 18 + years old workers at these conditions, let alone 14 years old.
You know what else is illegal, stealing. Also, 14yr olds are not children, they are in grade 10 and prob have had sex, drank alcohol, and smoked pot.
NO!
You obviously never grew up with many 14 yr. old from the hood.
Your opinion of what is a child is not the same as what is *legally* seen to be a child dude.
Kokiri’s don’t age though.
Nice one.
Nice one
It’s just anothe stupid way for fanboys to hate on Nintendo, not knowing that they manufacture their consoles to. Idiots.
another*
Yes, and considering that we´re talking about a japanese factory ( in Japan) it´s rather strange… japaneses in general are high strict about laws, unlike other Asians… if that was the case, surely the japanese government would move quickly
In America you can get a job at 15. Who cares about 14 year olds wanting to make some money and do something with their life. Good for them!
*in America you can get a job at 14.Who cares about kids making money and do something with their life.Good for them
Fix’d
Well, In America “You Can Get a Job” But, In China If You Don’t Work = No Food, No Education and You will be dished in the Slums.Whats more the government uses children studying in thier school for manufacturing products
It’s not a job they have there. It’s children working for less than a minimum salary with poor working conditions, like unsafe work places, no medical care, and so on. It’s illegal to have 18 + years old workers at these conditions, let alone 14 years old.
uh… i could have sworn it was 16, and 15 if you only work till 9…..
Fanrage, fanrage everywhere
Some kids in our American society their age need a job for all the bs stuff they think they need.
This company uses child labour and everyone knows it. Hopefully they rectify this situation, but this company always seems to have some kind of inhumanity scandal being exposed. Leave luck to heaven.
sigh nintendo, stay away from the foxx
Nintendo! Do a barral-roll!
Foxx !!!!!
It could be todlers, so long as it works I don’t care, just gimme allready.
Selfish much!
That a true american
You can’t change the way a culture operates. The majority of the products in peoples homes come from South East Asia, and a ton of it comes from sweatshops. Unless you shop at Ikea, damn Swedish plywood. Things are different the world over. To them child labor is okay, to others prostitutes in windows are dandy, and to others giving a child an assault rifle and saying kill the white ones is just fine. What people believe is not so easy to change that an internet forum can say it is deplorable and it just stops. So sometimes you joke to make these things seem not so horrible. It is how humans work. Damn.
i heard the new ps slim is made with rejected chinese female babies
I had a paper route when I was 12. OMGZ child labor!
it is if you do that 24/7 with no breaks and have to do it to town to town. oh and youre doing it for free
These were interns brought in from a school exchange program. I doubt they did anything but just take a tour sit around the office and probably at most made copies and run errands. This is a huge manufacturing company, they won’t just let anyone waltz in and start pushing buttons, because any slight mess up can ruin a whole assembly line.
Hahahahahahahahaha! This isn’t the first time Foxconn have been accused of this. And I must point out, I blame Nintendo too. They’re fully aware of their workforce and could have does something stop it, even if it is via a subcontractor.
Blame yourself and everyone else for that matter. Everyone wants to pay less money for what they want, only way to sell it for less is to build it for less, and thats the bottom line.
Or by taking a slightly lower profit? I mean, in business, money is everything. But not having children producing your products is even more. What would it take? Sod all even. All they have to do is be tough on Foxconn. Conditions there have improved but lapses like this can’t be left. It’s not too much effort to send a polite “stop employing children” email them.
So some kids got a job at a factory… so what? At least they’re working. Now, if they were being OVER worked this would be a problem. I really don’t see anything wrong with this.
omfg, ok. you seriously dont know what working conditions are like at those places do you? they pretty much work 20 hours a day and sleep where they work. there have been multiple accounts of suicides and riots breaking out there. and to top it off, they now have KIDS working there.
Life tough. People suffer all over the world. Some kids working at a manufaturing plant to make money is not that bad, sad but true.
it is bad lol. just because it happens a lot, doesn’t mean it’s not bad. and they’re making NEXT TO NOTHING. it’s illegal for a reason.
Well what if Foxxconn hired these kids because they were starving, took them off the street and said “You can work here, but you have to be quiet about it, because it’s illegal”. All the while the other 10 thousand kids that didn’t get asked to work will have starved to death by the end of the year.
or, more realistically, they hired them because they’re cheap labor and “why not?” we dont live in a word of sunshine and rainbow farts where people are giving kids jobs because they feel bad for them, they’re having kids work for them because they need as many people as they can get for as cheap as possible. dont be retarded.
I asked what “if” that was the case, you idiot, and besides that how the fuck would you know the terms of their hiring? It’s morons like you that assume so much negative shit and act like you actually know wtf is going on over there by reading an article on the internet or watching CNN then act like you care, how much money in donations have you sent to fight child labour in china?
its already been declared illegal in china you dumb shit. thats like donating money towards making meth illegal. its already illegal.
Hrmm, You’re dumber then I anticipated, I’ll keep this as simple as I can for you. Alright, just because something is “Illegal” it doesnt mean they don’t require money to keep it that way, they require money to find these offenders for one. I’ll use a few easy examples, Donations to fight Drug use is one, Conterfeiting is illegal yet they accept donations to help fight it. The list goes on and even your example was contradictory to your point there actually is a donation to fight meth use, so now that you’re aware of you’re own ignorance, I trust I wont be hearing from you again about this matter, thanks for playing.
omfg you’re retarded. first you’re SUPPORTING kids working in factories, and now you’re accusing me of bein some kind of heartless asshole because im not donating to a nonexistant cause? seriously, there is NO WHERE to donate towards keeping something illegal. all ive said is that it is WRONG for kids to be working, especially under the conditions those people are in. but for some reason you;re totally blind to the fact that working conditions in those factories is horrible. it doesnt take actually being there to know how it is. but what do i care. you’ll keep trying to convince me that underpaying kids to work extremely hard is okay. so what’s the point.
Do you really know what they are like? Have you worked in one of their factories? Or are you another whiney olive branch waving douche that watched five minutes of a documentary? I’m guessing the latter.
im neither. it’s a well known fact that working conditions are pretty terrible in those factories. and child labor is just wrong anyway. and seriously, look it up. that company has a very high suicide rate.
They better not fuck up my wii u.
They also make stuff for various other companies such as Sony, Microsoft, Apple etc.
So why the fuck aren’t those little cunts at kotaku, printing vitriol about them too?, because they’re anti-Nintendo pricks that’s why.
Because Sony, Apple and Microsoft could do nothing to stop it?
If they get paid I don’t see the problem.
Foxxconn sounds like something out of Metal Gear. But yeah, this pretty much sucks for those 14 year olds.
Those poor children…what the hell?
The same situation had happened with the War on minerals in Congo, Africa. The KONY organization had been attacking companies like Apple, Sony and Nintendo. I 100% against any type of child labor and violent methods of getting products, even if is against Nintendo. I am glad that Nintendo is doing something about it now. At least they stepped up and said something.
@Stratisfire
Again your mistaken, I do not support child labour. I am not trying to convince you that it is ok for children to work hard in poor conditions. “donating to keep it illegal” ok that was my mistake I misrepresented my intentions, All I meant was they accept donations to help fight against it, for example locating the sweat shops and shuting them down, I do not think you are a heartless asshole. My whole point was this. All of a sudden your so involved in China and Foxxconn and Child Labour laws that you are trying to pass you’re opinon as fact, forcing everyone to picture the most extreame negative, last week did you even have a single thought or concern about any of this? Is it only when you see an article about it that you actually care enough to think about it? The moment you see something like this you explode into a rage trying to convince the world they are the “devil” when all you actually know for sure is that Foxxconn has Grade 10 students working at thier factory, and that their factories are not up to American Standards in quality, You can’t tell me you know for sure how these students were treated or why they were hired in the first place, Yes I know, it’s easy to assume that it was only for cheap labour but these kids could have been begging to work at Foxxconn, you don’t know, not really. Just saying it’s not the end of the world if a Grade 10 wants to work even if it’s in horrible conditions.