Hundreds of schoolchildren have been drafted in to make Amazon's Alexa devices in China as part of a controversial and often illegal attempt to meet production targets, documents seen by the Guardian reveal. 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 – drafted in from schools and technical colleges in and around the central southern city of Hengyang – are classified as "interns", and their teachers are paid by the factory to accompany them. Teachers are asked to encourage uncooperative pupils to accept overtime work on top of regular shifts. 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.

Apple is investigating a factory in southwest China after a labour rights group said the tech giant's supplier forced student workers to work "like robots" to assemble its popular Apple Watch. Many were compelled to work in order to get their vocational degrees and had to do night shifts, according to an investigation by Hong Kong-based NGO Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehaviour (SACOM). SACOM interviewed 28 students at the plant in Chongqing municipality over the summer, and all of them said they had not voluntarily applied to work there, according to the report published last week. They worked under the guise of "internships", SACOM said, a practice rights groups say is widespread in China as manufacturers pair up with vocational schools to supply workers and fill labour shortages when they ramp up production for new models or the Christmas rush. "Our graduation certificate will be withheld by the school if we refuse to come," said one student majoring in e-commerce, according to SACOM.

Apple is investigating reports that one of its parts suppliers is illegally using high school students on its assembly line. Hong Kong-based human rights group Sacom alleges that Taiwanese manufacturer Quanta Computer has been skirting labor laws by using teenage "interns" to assemble the Apple Watch Series 4. According to the Financial Times, Sacom interviewed nearly 30 high school students working at Quanta Computer's factory in Chongqing, China and found many of them were working on the assembly line. One high schooler said there were about 120 students working in the plant, performing the same procedures over and over again "like a robot." A number of students reported being made to work overnight and night shifts, which is illegal under Chinese labor laws. The high schoolers were supposedly sent to the factories by teachers, and a number of the students said they were told they would not graduate if they didn't complete the internships.