Raising awareness.

There have been three separate groups who tried to raise awareness in the last year by filing lawsuits against Nestle, Mars, and Hershey because they had clear links to child labor.

The groups made claims to the courts of California attempting to sue the companies for failing to clearly state their products are made using child labor on the wrapper, or packaging.

Even though these claims were made on behalf of the California residents, the lawsuits were just a small part o a much larger protest regarding the use of child labor by multinational businesses.

These are some of America's largest and most profitable companies shouldn't condone the use of child slaves anywhere in their company, or allow them to turn a blind eye to the obvious mistreatment of some of their overseas workers.

It's time to demand that they begin acting in a socially and ethically responsible manner starting now. Unfortunately every one of the claims that have been made, so there has still been no changes to the packaging, and you could still unknowingly be eating chocolate made by child labor slaves.

A horrifying history.

Back in 2000 the documentary Slavery: a global investigation, brought worldwide awareness to the use of child labor in the chocolate industry.

The movie uncovered the story of a group of young boys working on a large cocoa farm, and lived lives of back breaking work, constant beatings, and heartache.

Following the release of the movie, chocolate companies appeared to be stunned and disturbed by the discovery and promised to eliminate child poverty in their industry by 2005, but began extending the deadline soon after they made the pledge, and the problem only seems to be getting worse.