Would you buy a pair of shoes if you knew that they had been made in a sweatshop where third-world preteens slaved away for 16+ hours a day? Most people would say no. That’s why there is such a hubbub when it comes out that company has been keeping its workers in conditions that we in the west think are unethical. Think GAP and Firestone in 2007. When we find out something about a company we don’t like, we stop buying from them. The feedback loop of consumers, activists and companies has created something of a self-policing environment wherein it pays for companies to be ethical. But is that true of digital products?
It came out a few days ago that Chinese prison bosses have been forcing convicts to farm gold in World of Warcraft. Doesn’t sound that bad until you find out that these 12-hour “mining” shifts followed on the heels of a full day manual labor, and that if you didn’t meet your gold quota you were beaten with pipes.
The gold that these prisoners farmed was then sold online, mostly to American and European gamers. This little mix of entrepreneurism and slavery earned the prison bosses between $800 and $900 a day (the prisoners naturally never saw any of it). Not bad in a country where you can get a full meal for $1.
Gold mining in China is nothing new. Roughly 80% of the World of Warcraft gold for sale online comes from the Middle Kingdom. Many of you will have heard about the “workshops,” where anyone from children to the elderly (though its usually teens) are paid to farm gold for a few dollars a day. While the condition may not be ideal, they aren’t different from most Chinese factories and don’t hold a candle to the prisons described by the former inmate.
Nor is sanctioned mistreatment of convicts anything new. Depending on your source a prison/uranium mine in China’s northwestern province of Xinjiang is the world’s deadliest penitentiary. It is a compound where life expectancy is measured in weeks due to extremely harsh work conditions and exposure to radiation. Along with this, the Chinese government’s systematic reeducation and torture of political dissents has also been widely reported.
What makes this report unique and interesting is not only that this is the first time the two have been combined but also because of the ethical questions it raises for gamers. Is saving a bit of time on leveling up your character worth knowing you could be directly supporting slavery? “Well,” you might say, “these are prisoners, I don’t mind helping punish murders and rapists.” The obvious counter arguments of the ethical treatment of prisoners and the legitimacy of the Chinese justice system aside, this report could very well be just the tip of the iceberg. Who is to say that there are not rundown office buildings full of Mandarin children staring listlessly at computer screens, slaving away to get your gold? The point is that, unlike most physical products, there is no way to know for sure where these products are coming from.
On the extreme end, some gamers may say, “Well, I guess since there is no way for me to be sure I’ll just have to bite the bullet and earn my own gold.” But believing that would be idealistic and naïve. Most consumers don’t care enough to look into the products they buy until it becomes fashionable or someone makes it easy for them- gamers are no different. What could, should, and on a small level has already started to happen, is an effort to make the supply chain of digital products more transparent. Several WoW gold selling website have already come out to assure the public they have safeguards to protect against sellers like the aforementioned prison bosses. This is great and probably true but the best way to be sure would be to have an outside, independent body to check these claims, much like the independent audits almost every NGO goes through to assure their supporters of their legitimacy. This, just like WoW gold farming, will not happen until gamers take it upon themselves to demonstrate there is a demand for it. The ball is in our court.
The Chinese prisoners report brings up an interesting ethical quandary for WoW players, but also more broadly for anyone who purchases digital products. How is that product produced? Is it done ethically or by an unpaid prisoner with the threat of torture as his only incentive? My guess is that the demand for such assurance will eventually exist, the only question is whether traditional methods, such as independent audits, will prevail or something newer and better will emerge. Either way it will be interesting to see what happens.
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- digital products · ethics
