So true. For the cobalt, specifically, asking a competing mining nation to label DoC as "Blood Cobalt" could go a long way, as it did for diamonds.
As for unpaid labor, it's a fair spectrum. Imagine if we refused to buy from companies who use unpaid interns, or from corporations whose model includes "independent contractors" [Uber] who are not provided benefits or security. That would be a god start to valuing human labor here at home.
Or we could just invade cobalt producing countries, educate their children so they can grow up to be unpaid interns and independent contractors for us.