Child Labor Tools for Consumers–Apps

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Free2Work: This phone app lets you browse companies and how they scored on labor policies, as well as get updates from activists and check out videos and photos from the field. delivers product ratings as you shop. Products receive a letter grade that any school child can understand (A through F) that is based on their protocols to eliminate forced labor and child slavery in the production of their products.

aVOID: This is a browser plug-in that screens your online shopping for products associated with the exploitation of children. It works with all major online shops (including Amazon, although I found results were inconsistent) by replacing the search results for companies linked to child-labor issues (American Apparel, it turns out) with a hand icon indicating “stop”. The app uses data from the Active Against Child Labour campaign to rank manufacturers according to their child labor violations and commitment to avoid child labor. For more info, click here.

Kid Rescue: This non-profit app encourages people to document illegal child labor by taking “geo-tagged” photographs that prove its existence. Once the information is sent, a database will be created, which can only be accessed by social workers linked to Fundación Telefónica. For more info, click here.

Yo digo: Aquí Estoy Whenever users see a child working they can take a picture with their phone and log the location, which the app sends to the country’s child welfare agency. Focuses mostly on Columbia, but extends worldwide. For more info, click here.

Chocolate List: Sponsored by the Food Empowerment Project, this app reflects Food Empowerment Project’s most recent research on companies that make vegan products containing chocolate to find out if they source their chocolate from areas where slavery can still be found. For more info, click here. To access on iTunes, go here.

Child Trafficking Awareness Course Basics: The Child Trafficking Basics app contains information to increase the opportunities to identify, engage, protect and rescue child victims of trafficking. Made by Ineqe Safe and Secure. For more info, please click here.

Slavery Footprint: This app reveals how much of a user’s lifestyle runs on forced labor through calculations and statistics. The score is calculated based on the raw materials in those products, such as the tantalum used in smartphones, which is often mined by trafficked persons. Made by Call + Response in partnership with the U.S. Department of State. For more info, click here.

[Compiled by CLC intern Monique St. Jarre, 2013]