You would like to buy a new mobile phone. Which one should you choose? It´s a difficult choice. You can judge the phones by their appeal; you can base decisions on the prices; you can look at which company has the most trendy phones.

Another trend within the electronics industry is the ambition to make ‘fair products’. Is this important to you? The aim of makeITfair is to make the industry more friendly for the workers in the factories and mines and more friendly for the environment. There is no fair phone yet, but some producers have started offering more ‘friendly products’. A makeITfair survey shows that teenagers are willing to pay 10% more for their phone if employees in developing countries are paid higher salaries!

Take a look at the film Thai hard drive (broadcasted by VARA, the Netherlands), to see what this is all about. Even though the film is about computer hard drives, the information is just as relevant for mobile phones.

In 2007, a network of organisations in Europe created makeITfair. This network examines the working conditions in the factories that deliver components to the big electronics brand-name companies and monitors how the environment is treated. On the following pages, you will learn more about what makeITfair has found out – starting at the beginning: in the mines where workers extract metals that are crucial for our gadgets to work.

Answer questions 3 and 4 on your worksheet.

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