Apple, Sony and Samsung have been accused of employing child labor slaves as young a seven years old by human rights organisation Amnesty. Amnesty have accused the tech giants of failing to do basic checks to ensure minerals used in their products were not mined by children. A report into cobalt mining, a component of lithium-ion batteries, found young children being forced to mine for the mineral in the Democratic Republic of the Congo on behalf of these firms. BBC News reports: The firms said that they had a zero tolerance policy towards child labour. The DRC produces at least 50% of the world’s cobalt. Miners working in the area face long-term health problems and the risk of fatal accidents, according to Amnesty. It claimed that at least 80 miners had died underground in southern DRC between September 2014 and December 2015. It also collected the testimonies of children who allegedly work in the mines. Paul, a 14-year-old orphan, started mining when he was 12 and told researchers: “I would spend 24 hours down in the tunnels. I arrived in the morning and would leave the following morning … I had to relieve myself down in the tunnels … My foster [...]