Hundreds of schoolchildren have been drafted to make Amazon’s Alexa devices in China in attempt to meet production targets for the tech giant. Interviews with workers and leaked documents from Amazon’s supplier Foxconn show that many of the children have been required to work nights and overtime to produce the smart-speaker devices, in breach of Chinese labour laws. According to the documents, the teenagers are classified as “interns”, and their teachers are paid by the factory to accompany them and encourage uncooperative pupils to accept overtime work. Some of the pupils making Amazon’s Alexa-enabled Echo and Echo Dot devices along with Kindles have been required to work for more than two months to supplement staffing levels at the factory during peak production periods, researchers found. More than 1,000 pupils are employed, aged from 16 to 18. Foxconn admitted that students had been employed illegally and said it was taking immediate action to fix the situation.

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